Electric Community

Cleaning out my analog closet

2009-12-04T08:57:00.000-08:00

I feel like I should post since Karl was nice enough to link my blog and say kind things about it! The internet doesn't need another "sorry I haven't posted in a while" blogs so I'll just skip past that.

Life has brought about a lot of changes this year. I just became and uncle and I started dating the most amazing woman I've ever met. That wasn't enough change so I decided to get engaged, start planning a wedding, and look for a house for us to buy as well. Whoa.

In terms of guitar, the biggest change will be moving to a smaller house. Currently I live with 3 other guys who are all musicians and we have a 20' x 20' room full of recording gear, drumsets, bass rigs, guitars and amps, a fender rhodes and a hammond B3. I have lots and lots of stuff in that room. I won't have room for it and honestly I don't use a lot of it so I've been selling stuff off. I'll be taking my amp, three electrics, an acoustic, my pedalboard (plus a few extra pedals), and the rhodes with. Everything else is going.

In the downsize, one of the things that crossed my mind was selling my amp, cab, and pedalboard and replacing it with a digital modeling system. I couldn't bring myself to do it, though. Not because I'm against modelers but because I really like what I'm getting with my current gear. Why fix it if it ain't broken?

However, I did decide two things: 1) If I didn't have any gear and I was starting from scratch I would go digital and 2) when my amp dies I will most likely switch. My amp is 38 years old, it will die someday and I have it insured so even if it just dies of old age I'll still get the appraised value, score!

So, what should I get if my amp died today or hypothetically I didn't own any gear?

I have a few criteria:

1) It has to sound good. Not "people falling to their knees that single note sounded so sweet" good. Maybe 90% that good.

2) I has to keep presets and have a simple layout so with two or less buttons I can bring up a new song with a new tempo.

3) It has have great delay, light overdrive, tube screamer (solo), and high gain - or let me input my Tim, TS808, and OCD.

4) It has to model a Superbass/Bassman and AC30 well. Bonus if it models a bluesy fender.

5) It has to be significantly cheaper and/or easier to transport than my current set up. Otherwise, what's the point?

6) Has line out to the sound board and the option to go out to a solid state power amp with a speaker.

Components I would look at:

1) Axe-fx
2) Line6 M13
3) Line6 M9
4) Line6 EchoPro (rack delay)
5) Digidesign eleven-rack
6) POD (maybe..)

Any recommendations?!?

Roland Corp, kind a cool!

2009-08-24T10:10:00.000-07:00

Next week I'm flying out to LA for business. It's nothing new, I often fly to my company's customer sites to install our software and train them on how to use it. The cool thing about this one is I'm going to Roland Corporation. Roland is in keyboards, recording gear, V-drums and Boss pedals. Of course stock boss pedals are nothing to write home about, but it will be cool to take a tour and see the behind the scenes stuff! I'm looking forward to it.

This made me laugh

2009-07-16T15:13:00.000-07:00

While checking out craigs list I came across this post:

Talented Guitarist Looking to Tour

My name is Josh and I am a skilled musician and guitarist. My plans for going to college fell through so I am currently looking to join a band that is touring or planning on touring and doing lots of work. I am a very committed person and am willing to go as far as the band is willing to go. I have lots of experience with playing in bands, playing shows, and I have been playing guitar for 8 years. I also sing and play a little piano. Please contact me if you are a serious band and you are in need of a guitarist. Thanks!

-Josh

If only there were an "established band who had already put in all the grunt work and had worked their way up to being a touring band so we could jump on their band wagon" for every guitarist who thought they were good enough. I hear these bands go to Guitar Center to find new local talent. Maybe if you go there 8 hours a day and play through a dimed 150W amp someone will pick you up for their fall tour.

Feeling cynical,
Mike

Gear wish list

2009-06-15T14:49:00.000-07:00

If I had more money than I knew what to do with I would:

- Switch out the pickups in my ES-137.

- Trade my peppermint fuzz for a fuzz that doesn't suck.

- Get a strat (style) guitar - possibly build one from parts.

- Get a Class A EL84 amp.

- Get a 6V6 bluesy amp.

- Trade my Les Paul for a better one, or just upgrade all the electronics in my current (though the feel of the neck is part of what I don't like).

- Get a guitar with P90s like a Les Paul Jr or a Jazz Master.

That's it :)

Using a Musicom Labs EFX to switch presets on a TimeFactor

2009-06-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

Using a Musicom Labs EFX to switch presets on a TimeFactor is a beautiful thing, especially if you use a lot of delays. Being able to call up any combination of pedals, and call up a delay preset makes changing songs so fast. But, if you're like me, you got a Musicom and a Time Factor (TF) and stared blankly at the two manuals wondering how the heck they work together. I've received enough messages on the gear page to realize I wasn't alone in this. There's good news though! It's way, way easier than you think and the two pedals will work together right out of the box. The hardest thing is understanding what's going on and both manuals assume you understand MIDI already. I'll help explain what's going on with the MIDI and give you the basics on how to use the two together to call up presets on the TF for any preset on the Musicom. I won't get into the anything advanced, just the very basics to get you rolling. Here goes.

The first thing is understanding what's going on. For now, ignore anything in the manuals about control changes (CC) and program change channels (choosing a channel 1-16... both products use channel 1 by default and you don't need to change anything). All you need to know about is program changes (PCs). When you want the TF to change banks based on the Musicom, there needs to be some communication between the two, that communication is a PC. A PC is actually just a number, 1-128. When you change banks on the Musicom you can tell it to send a PC to the TF. The TF receives that PC number and knows to change presets.

The TF needs to know what preset to switch to based on the PC number it receives. If you read the TF manual you'll find there's a table in the TF where is PC number is mapped to a preset in the TF. By default the TF's table is set up like this:

PC number - TF bank
================
1 - 1:1
2 - 1:2
3 - 2:1
4 - 2:2
5 - 3:1
6 - 3:2
... etc ...
39 - 20:1
40 - 20:2

Since there's only 40 presets in the TF, PC number 41 through 128 won't do anything. You won't need to change that table and actually, you won't need to do anything to the TF at all, it's all set up the way you need it out of the box.

In fact, the only thing you need to do is plug a MIDI cable from the Musicom to the TF and tell the Musicom which PC number to send on any of it's presets. It's worth mentioning that the Musicom can send a PC number of 1-128, or you can set the musicom to send "NoN" (or "---" on the older musicom) which means it won't send a PC number and the TF will stay on whatever bank it was already on.

There are two versions of the Musicom EFX out there, so I'll give instructions for each. Hope this helps! If you have more questions write it in the comments. Good luck!!

EFX MKII (the wider shorter new one):

1) Select the preset you want to be in. Make sure you're in preset mode (not edit mode)
2) Hold down the MODE button until the screen displays PC1
3) Press the PS3 button to chose a PC number - the screen will display NoN or whatever number you had previously chosen for this preset.
4) Use the bank up/down buttons to chose NoN or a number 1-40 (whichever TF preset you want)
5) Press the PS3 button again to save the number
6) Press the mode button again to be done.

Original EFX (the more square older one):

1) Select the preset you want to be in. Make sure you're in preset mode (not edit mode)
2) Hold down the MODE button until the screen displays PC1
3) Press the PS4 button to chose a PC number - the screen will display "---" or whatever number you had previously chosen for this preset.
4) Use the bank up/down buttons to chose "---" or a number 1-40 (whichever TF preset you want)
5) Press the PS4 button again to save the number
6) Press the mode button again to be done.

Filmosound modded amp

2009-05-28T06:49:00.001-07:00

I was being so good! I hadn't bought a piece of guitar gear in 9 months. Considering I built me rig from nothing in the previous 3 years... that says a lot! The key to not buying gear is to stay away from the gear page and craig's list. I know the rules, but the other day I slipped. I went on to CL innocently enough, I wanted to see if anyone was selling Ikea shelves so I could get them cheaper. as soon as I had typed craigslist.org my fingers just naturally finished with "/msg". Oh well, now that I'm here I might as well see what the gear world is doing. "awesome vintage squire -$200", pass. "Free huge grand piano if you pay $400 to have it moved", pass. "Hand Built Point to Point Super Charged Tweed Deluxe Style Tube Amp", Oh? What's that? Click.
Here's what it said:

Hand Made, Hand Wired, Point to Point all tube guitar amplifier. This amp is much like Fender's late '50's Tweed Deluxe. Two 6V6 in a push pull configuration, 12AX7 driver/phase inverter and 12AT7 in the preamp position. Although this amp is much like a tweed deluxe, significant tweaks have been made to make the amp more usable and more fun. The amp is in the head configuration, so you can use any speaker combo you like. The amp has 8 and 16 ohm speaker taps. One volume and one tone control and a fat/lean switch to accommodate a variety of pickups. Additional circuit alterations have been employed to make the amp "hotter" and more dynamic than a stock 5E3. Very touch sensitive and versatile for a simple amp. Quite loud for 15 watts. Pure tone. Built into an old film projector chassis. No circuitry from the original Filmosound (because stock filmosounds sound awful). All new quality components, 50 year old iron, old stock tubes.

I'm interested... what's the price? Cheaper than either of my delays? Hmmmmm. About 3 hours later I was knowledgeable about Tweed Delux and Filmosound amps, had planned out a matching cab and speaker to pair with this head, and had come up with plenty of reasons why I needed this amp. The only thing left was to find out if it sounded good. Luckily for me, there was a youtube video of one of his earlier amps:

Sweet.

I think I've mentioned before that ever since I got my Tele (G&L) I've wanted a Fender style amp. I just hadn't found the right tone/price combo. I was pretty excited to try this amp out. I went over last night and it sounded good! I brought it home but one of my roommates was sleeping so I'll have to wait to hear it with my pedals and cab. Right now I'm going to use my 2x12 with scumback's but I'd like to get a 1x12 with a Weber 12A100 (clone of a Jensen P12R).

Are you wondering what's the deal with filmosound? I was too. Filmosound made projectors in the 50's with a built in tube amp and external speaker. Apparently you can plug a guitar right into it and it sounds ok. Anthony, the guy who built this amp essentially gutted the filmosound amp and rewired it and upgraded components so it's more like a Tweed Delux. It still has the original tubes and transformer. He's not the first to do this, but he's possibly the only one doing it now and from what I can tell there are probably less than 50 in existence made my anyone. Here's a good read if you're more interested in this style amp:

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=156790

Here's the blog of the amp builder who sold it to me:

http://atmarsamps.blogspot.com/

Here's what it looks like!

The secret to good tone

2009-05-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

Bad tone = bad hands + transparent gear

Bad tone = good hands + non-transparent gear

Good tone = good hands + transparent gear

.

What am I doing?

2009-04-13T12:17:00.000-07:00

I'm not really a sermon guy. When I go to church I usually politely listen and think about what the preacher is saying, but it's not how I absorb things. I'd rather read a book, talk with someone one-on-one, or learn from experience. Sometimes I'm really inspired by sermons but when I think back months later, it really didn't create any change in how I do things. I've probably heard around 1,500 or 2,000 sermons in my life and I remember about 10 of them. So like I said, sermons aren't my thing, but I politely listen to them... until sometime around January. That's when I started getting annoyed by sermons. The downside of being involved in the service is you hear the same sermon two to four times in a weekend. Plus another one for some sort of mid-week gig, plus one or two more for my own church Sunday night. I started to almost resent that I had to sit through sermons - so I knew it was time to take a break and figure out what's wrong.

I finished off all my committed dates and told each of the churches I was taking a break - a sort of sabbatical - until late summer or fall. I'm still going to my own church and playing there once a month, but I'm not playing anywhere else or going to any other churches. It will be a nice break!

With that said, I might not be writing too much over the next few months either. I'm playing guitar less (still maintaining!) but working on my rhythm with some drumming stuff and spending a lot of time training for a couple triathlons this summer. I know I'll never stop making music but I'm going to enjoy spending some time doing other things for a bit.

I'll be back and I'll keep reading your blogs in the mean time! Thanks for the nice words from those of you wondering what happened to me :)

//mike

Reliced guitars

2009-02-20T12:36:00.001-08:00

For a few years now Fender Custom shop has been building relic guitars that are new but look like they were tossed around a stage for 50 years. It's pretty sweet and while it might be a total poser move, I'd rather have a fresh guitar that looks beat up than an a guitar that was ACTUALLY beat up for reliability reasons. I'd have a hard time believing an old guitar that looks like the one above didn't have it's neck cracked at some point. It'd be a diffrent story if I had worn it in myself, but I guess that's a different story. The only problem with the custom shop relics are the price tag. $3,500 for a strat is a little hard to swallow, especially when you can get an early 70s vintage start for about the same price.

To fix the price problem, fender started making some guitars that had "wear" painted right on. The quality was about as good as a T-shirt and you could spot the fake wear from the other side of guitar center.

The latest Fender creation is the "Road Worn" series that is still trying to find some cheaper ground while looking reliced. These guitars and assembled and road worn in Mexico and while they look much better than the screen printed previous versions, the quality isn't right. It's a MIM strat at 1.5x the price with OK but not great looking relics. I got to play one earlier this week and like a lot of reviews I saw, the frets were pretty sharp.

I like the look of relics and I'm keeping an out for a good blues Strat so I decided to check and see if any other companies are making relics that are better quality than the road worn but less expensive than the custom shop. Here's what I found:

Nash guitars - About half the price of a custom shop guitar ($1700). Available at a bunch of places inclusing musictoyz.com. They make start, tele, esquire, and P bass relics. Used to do custom order but not anymore apparently.

Rebel Relic - out of Amsterdam. About the same price (1400 Euro [$1775 by current exchange]). They do strat, tele, eqsuire and will do custom jobs too, including basses.

Ebay - I found a coulpe guys on ebay that take stock guitars and do some work to relic them. They actually do a pretty good job.

I also found sites selling reliced hardware.

I'm still saving up and buying the /13 when I'm to my goal, so it's all just looking for now! I wonder if relic guitars will be a fad like buying jeans with holes?? Hmmmmmm.

Look out Aviom

2009-02-04T08:20:00.000-08:00

Aviom is a "personal monitoring system" a lot of churches use for their musicians. You can use them with wedge monitors, but I think most use them with in ears. The great thing about them is you can control the level of each instrument, on your own, by twisting knobs. Much better than yelling to the sound guy or making air traffic control signals during a song to let the sound guy know how he can adjust your monitor. It's also great with in ears because the mix is a lot more finicky when you can hear everything so clearly, you can get buy with a less than stellar mix in a wedge than in an in ear.

So far Aviom has pretty much had this market to themselves... until now. RSS (by Rolland) has introduced the M-48 personal monitoring system. From the specs and what I've heard, it basically blows the Aviom out of the water. RSS makes a digital mixer called the V-Mixing System which is a pretty popular digital mixing board. The M-48, while it will work with any sound board, will specifically work really slick with the V-Mixing system. I'm not an expert on digital mixing boards, so I'll leave it at "it works well together" and let sound guys dig into it for them selves.

How does this effect us as musicians?

Instead of being limited to 16 channels like the Aviom, you can have 40 inputs and chose the 16 you want from the 40. With Aviom you can only send the same 16 to everyone, with the M-48 you and the drummer could have 16 completely different channels if you wanted. For instance, maybe the drummer wants each drum individually so he can mix them, but you just want a sub mix of all the drums (as one channel) that you can easily turn up or down with one twist. You can!
Built in reverb for any channels you want. This is especially good for vocals and it's a classic studio trick to add extra reverb to a vocalists headphone mix while they sing, it makes the singer more confident.
Built in limeter. This makes sure no noise gets over a certain volume - essential for in ears so you don't blow your eardrum if something feeds back or the sound guy accidentally has the gain way up one something during sound check.
Built in room mic. Yeah, built in to the little module in front of you. That way you can hear people talk and get a feel for the room.

No word on official pricing yet, but it's supposed to be "competitive with Aviom" in cost. The only bummer is that they waited so long! I think most churches that are going this way have already bought themselves an Aviom. If you have an Aviom it would be really, really hard to justify ditching the Aviom to buy this.

Changes to the Marshall

2009-02-02T09:55:00.000-08:00

My amp is back! And it sounds the best I've ever heard it!! I've always loved the tone of my Super Bass but now it's just ridiculous. I never thought it could sound this good. Here's the story:

I brought the amp in a few weeks ago to get the power and preamp tubes changed out and biased. During it's two week wait to get worked on, a couple friends of mine, who are also friends of Savage (where the amp was getting worked on) were in the shop, pointed out my amp in the waiting list, and suggested they take extra care and look it over. It's a good things they did because instead of just changing the tubes they gave the amp a look over and noticed one of the filter caps was about to burst and the others were dimpling and would need to be changed at some point. They also took a look at some of the mods my amp has and wanted to remove a mod and get it back to stock settings.

A little history on the mod they wanted to remove, I was told it was a "half power" switch so to me that meant it would cut two of the power tubes from the circuit and make the 100W amp a 50W amp. I had tried it on the "half power" mode expecting to get more tube amp tone at the same volume, but that was never the case. It always sounded awful so I just never used it.

Back to savage, they found out this switch wasn't cutting tubes, it was cutting half of the main preamp tube. ?????? So it was the dumbest mode ever. It essentially was just cutting preamp gain and therefore cutting volume... kind of. That explains why it sounded bad. On top of that, when the switch was up - "normal" it was STILL changing some values in the preamp stage. They called to talk about the changes and asked me what I liked and didn't like about the amp. I said I really liked it as a warm clean amp but never liked the overdrive. I always assumed it was just because amps back then sounded thin over-driven. They said the OD didn't sound like it should for the amp and they thought removing the switch would make it sound much better. I gave them the go ahead to change all the filter caps, remove the switch, clean everything, and change all the tubes.

A few days later they called to say it was all done and they were excited about how it sounded. They've been making a 100W prototype and had been A/B/C-ing my amp, theirs, and a Hiwatt to hear the differences and really liked the sound of mine.

I went in to play it and dang does it sound nice! The clean channel is noticeably better but with the gain cranked it's a completely different amp than before! It's the Marshall balls-to-the-wall stuff's falling off the shelf rock n' roll tone!!! And not the JCM800 or 900 tone, it's the classic AC/DC, Hendrix, The Who tone. Nummy. When they were changing the preamp stage back to stock they opened up a plexi super bass they have at the shop and made it identical.

Here's how the faceplate changed:

Sorry the top on is so blurry, I didn't have a hi-res photo on my computer. It's nice having the use of both channels again. I like the bright channel better but now I can jump them and blend the normal channel in if I want. They also told me something about the master volume that makes perfect sense, but I had never thought of it - if I dime the master volume it's essentially back to stock and volume 1 and volume 2 control everything like they would have stock. Why didn't I think of that?!

Overall I'm completely happy. It ended up costing way more than a tube change, but it was worth it. I haven't even plugged my pedals in yet, the guitar > amp sound has been keeping me happy :)

Review: Savage Blitz 50 amp

2009-01-24T12:05:00.000-08:00

Well, I thought my amp would be done this week, but when they went to change the tubes they took some interest in my amp and suggested some changes and also found some filter caps that were on their last leg. More on all that once my amp is back. In the mean time, Savage Audio was nice enough to loan me one of their amps for the weekend until they're done doing work on my amp. The amp they loaned me was:

Savage Audio Blitz 50
A hand-wired EL34 Marshall style amp. Savage makes great amps, and if nothing else, I was excited to play the same amp Doyle Bramhall (Eric Clapton), Beck, and Stone Gossard of Peal Jam use!! The amp is: 2 channel (normal and bright) with a volume fo reach, reverb, master volume, pentode/triode switchable, 50W, and will allow KT-66 or 6L6 tubes if you rebias.

It took me a while to get a sound dialed in that I liked. The amp has strong punchy bass which is great, but I had a hard time getting the highs to sound right. I ended up jumping the normal and bright channel in order to blend in a bit of the bright channel. After that, things sounded about right to me. Here's how I had it dialed in:

Overall the sound is really punchy and dynamic. It was almost too much for me, but then again I'm used to a 35 year old marshall that probably lost it's punch in the 80s. I use my amps as a clean-ish channel and use pedals to drive things, so that's how I had the Blitz 50 set up. Unfortunately I wasn't in love with the amp as a clean channel. I'd be curious to hear how it sounded with fender style 6L6 tubes, it might sound better clean that way. The amp DID sound great with the gain turned up. It would sound great as a rock amp or in a two amp set up where one amp is clean and the blitz 50 is dirty. The master volume sounded great except for really low volumes, the tone changed below about 9 o'clock and then sounded great, just louder or softer, the the rest of the way around.

Conclusion: Great sounding rock amp, punchy and in your face, good for rock, not the best for clean.

Thanks for the loaner Savage!!!

UPDATE 1/25/09:
I spent way more time with the amp and found a great clean setting that sounds just like my Super bass. They key was to play with the pentode/triode switch. I'm not sure if this is still true, but I read the switch also changes between A and AB circuitry. Whatever the change, I liked it better with the switch flipped up (labeled Solid State, not tube). The amp would totally be usable as a replacement for my Superbass if something were to happen to it. As long as I have the super bass, though, I don't see myself getting a blitz 50 too.

UPDATE 1/29/09:
I hung out at Savage today and asked them about the Solid state/Tube switch. It's NOT pentode/Triode like I had heard, it switches between a tube and SS rectifier. My super bass has a SS rectifier so that explains why it sounded more normal to me. I still think the bass on the tube rectifier was too floppy for me.

Justin Bender's LP

2009-01-22T14:34:00.000-08:00

Justin Bender's a dude I met in college and have been playing with for years. We used to be in a band called Justin & Mike and we desperately wanted to be Shane & Shane. At least I did. We also played in Left on Farwell together a few years back. Now he's doing worship leading and has a brand new worship album out, his first LP. Check it out!

www.myspace.com/justinbendermusic

.

to be or not to be... on stage

2009-01-19T13:49:00.000-08:00

I'd say it's the norm for worship teams to set up on stage and visually be the center of the room. Usually it's because it's the only place to to set up and that's just how it's done. But in bigger spaces there's a choice that's made about what will be the focus (visually) of the church. In some extremes I've been told to move a few inches to my left or right because I'm not centered with the other side of the stage, or that I need to smile bigger so people can see it from the back! On the opposite side of things I play at places where the band sets up on the ground in front of the stage and we're basically standing in the front row so other things can be the visual center of attention. I don't think either side is more right or more wrong, and it really doesn't bother me one way or the other, but I think it's worth discussing and thinking about. I'll make the argument for both cases and you comment to share your ideas. As a side note, these are just my opinions and obviously don't represent the official stance of either church pictured below. 1,2,3 go:

The worship team should be on stage:

Two pictures of Willow Creek in Chicago. The musicians are on stage and also on the screens. These were shot at a conference, so I can't say whether it represents Willow Creek on a regular Sunday but it is an example of a worship service.

The worship team has two jobs, to make music and to help people connect with God. The difference between playing a worship CD and having a worship team is the human element. Being able to see the worship team helps the congregation connect. They can see the worship team's emotion, see them worship, and it helps the congregation. Some people will be new to church and not sure what to do, seeing the worship team worship will give them an example. Some people don't need to see the worship team so they simply close their eyes. When the worship leader speaks between songs they need to be seen, otherwise it's weird to just hear a voice coming from somewhere. The human interaction and connection is just as important as the music a worship team makes.

The Worship team should not be on stage:

Two shots of my home church, The Upper Room. The top picture shows where the worship team stands and the bottom picture is a better shot of the room and where the focus is.

Whether we realize it or not, churches visually center around that which they worship. When churches worshiped power and wealth they were built to look like castles, when they worship knowledge they're built like a classroom, and when they worship entertainment they're built like a concert hall. That's not to say all churches that have their musicians on stage worship the musicians, but in a society that DOES worship rock stars, why blur the lines? Instead churches should make the statement that they definitely do not worship our musicians. Churches built in the early 20th century often put the musicians on the balcony in the back of the church. We don't go that far, but we do set up on the floor, not the stage. That way we, and the congregation, feel like we're on the same level, all worshiping something bigger. It's easy to forget the band is there and get caught up in moment. The visual focus is the cross, the words to the song, or the imagery on the screens or on stage, rarely the musicians.

What do you think?

Saving incentive

2009-01-15T15:24:00.000-08:00

Most of us gear heads aren't the best at keeping our cash. I say cash because we're secretly good at saving... gear just isn't the most liquid of assets. In a pinch we could sell all gear for close to what we paid since we got it used or it's vintage or we made it better or whatever. That makes us better savers than people who throw money away on frivolous stuff with no value, but not by much!

Now is a good time to save money though. While I think the economy and stock market will eventually rebound , the next few years will be interesting to say the least. I've decided to save. Saving isn't fun though, I need something to look foreword to or I'll probably quit. This might be the most backwards incentive to save ever, but I made a deal with myself: If I get my savings to a goal I've set, I'll buy myself something nice. I set my goal pretty high and added in the cost of my "something nice" so I'm not back below my goal after the fun present. The something nice I decided on is a divided by 13 JRT 9/15 combo.

I like my amp so I've never seriously looked at getting another amp, but once in a while I go on the "search for a great amp" just for fun - because sometimes figuring out what to get is more fun than actually having it!! I almost always land on the JRT 9/15. Divided by 13 makes amazing stuff and the JRT 9/15 is like two amps in one, a 9 watt Fender tweed style 6V6 amp and a 15 watt EL84 that's like an AC15 or Marshall 18 watter. It's great for recording and gives a lot of sound options in one package. Even better, it gets tones my superbass can't.

It will be a long time before I get this but hopefully it makes the months of thrifty living more palatable knowing I have something cool to look forward too!

Review: Fender Super-Sonic amp

2009-01-13T21:26:00.000-08:00

My amp is still in the shop waiting to be retubed so I'm ampless. Kind of like being homeless. Wow, I sound really spoiled saying that! Anyway, so far I haven't needed an amp since I played acoustic in a wedding and at church last weekend and I have a tiny little solid state amp in my room for practicing. I had a rehearsal tonight so it was time to borrow an amp. My friend works at a music store and agreed to grab me something. I knew their selection, and the Fender Super-Sonic was what I was hoping to try, but I didn't want to be choosey so I didn't ask for anything specific. With that said, I was pretty excited when he said he had brought over the super-sonic!

The Super-sonic is a newer amp from Fender and it's designed to be super versatile. It's all tube amp with two basic modes: Vintage and burn (modern) with two overarching tones - Bassman and Vibrolux. It puts out 60 watts into a single 12" Celestion Vintage 30.

There's a distinct tonal difference between the bassman and vibrolux, the bassman has a more full bottom end and is darker sounding (kind of bluesy) while the vibrolux has the classic fender "clean" sparkle. I haven't done much digging but I don't think they use a different analog circuit to get the different tones, I suspect there's some digital modeling going on. It's neither a true bassman or a vibrolux circuit (again just assuming for now) but both modes sounded convincing.

The vintage and burn modes control the way the preamp behaves. The vintage mode uses a non-master volume control meaning as you turn up the volume the gain increases (like vintage amps did). That means to get a lot of overdrive the amp has to be very loud. I found it started breaking up between 2 and 3 which was too loud for bedroom playing, and just slightly loud for playing with a drumset. The burn mode uses a master volume and two stages of gain. That means you can turn the gain (overdrive) way up and still keep the volume lower. For distorted tones you would use the burn mode, for clean and light overdrive you would use the vintage mode... or do it like me and use the vintage mode and use pedals to get your overdrive.

The super-sonic also has analog spring reverb that can be use on any mode. There's also an FX loop with output and input volumes. The output/input volume could be used for effects in the loop, or you can plug a cable strait from the out to the in and use the input volume as a gain boost - especially nice since you can turn the FX loop on and off from the footswitch that comes with the amp. Instant clean boost! There's a regular speaker output (8 ohms) connected to the Vintage 30 and an extension speaker out (also 8 ohms) that can be used along with the built in speaker. There's also a head-only version that's shorter and doesn't have the speaker built in. The preamp tubes are six 12AX7 and two 12AT7 and the power amp tubes are two 6L6GC.

My Thoughts
I've had my eye out for a "fender tone" amp ever since I got my G&L. I don't think a fender will ever be my main amp so I'm looking for one that can give a range of tones. So far, the Super-Sonic has the most fender tones in one amp while still being a true tube amp. I was surprised to find the Vintage 30 inside... I expected a 12" Jenson or maybe 2x10s inside. I can't be fair to the Vintage 30 since it wasn't broken in, but when I ran the amp through my 2x12 of Scumback M75s it was no comparison, my 2x12 sounded way better (I had my friend listen too, just to make sure it wasn't my bias!). I wish the vintage mode broke up just a little bit sooner since I had to set the volume to mix with the other guitar/bass/drums and it was just a little too low for the amp. After practice my friend (bless his heart) let me play around for a few more minutes and with the volume bumped a little it sounded significantly better. I could get good tone out of both the bassman and vibrolux modes. My favorite sound was my G&L bridge pickup through a keeley blues driver to the super-sonic in bassman/vintage mode with a little reverb. SUPER good blues tone. I didn't play with the "burn" mode much, I didn't really understand with two gains (didn't read the manual!) and I was more concerned with the clean and light OD tones of the vintage mode. My biggest complaint was the grill cloth and faceplate look. I went online to check prices and found out they make the combo and amp in blonde/oxblood which looks better IMO.

If you're looking for superb bassman or vibrolux tone, get a vintage bassman or vibrolux. If you're looking for solid Fender Tone with a lot of options, this is it! It would also make a great first tube amp with lots of options, especially if you're playing blues, country, or clean sounds. If you're looking for a rock amp, there are probably better ones out there for you. I liked it enough to consider getting one eventually.

How do you set up your monitor mix?

2009-01-11T13:01:00.000-08:00

Sometimes comments turn into a blog post... that's happening here after some comments on Karl's blog. We got to discussing the balance between having a quiet stage volume (monitors and instruments that make noise) but loosing the feel of the music versus having a loud stage volume so you feel it but making the front of house (FOH) sound muddy in the process.

I realized I'm kind of a freak and have learned how to get buy on really bad monitor mixes. Part of that comes from playing in concert bands (band with tubas and flutes, not guitars) where there's no monitors and you just have to listen to the room, and part of it comes from my first experience with monitors which was our college ministry worship band - we had 2 floor wedges (that both had the same mix) for the whole band. In both cases I got used to listening to the room not the monitor, only relying on monitors for things I really need to hear, and trusting that things sound different FOH than they do in my mix.

Listening to the room
At the conference last week I went two sets without anything in my monitor (floor wedge). It was either off or just so low that I couldn't hear it. I could hear the drums because they were right next to me, bass because he had an amp on stage and because he was in the subs, and my amp because it was right next to me. I could hear the worship leader's electric because it was near the stage (behind it) and could hear his vocals and acoustic through the FOH speakers even though they were facing away from me. It wasn't ideal, but I could hear all the pieces... well enough. I couldn't tell you what word the worship leader was singing but I knew the songs and could tell what verse or chorus he was on. Often times I can hear the lead singer in his or her own monitor loud enough that I don't need it in mine. I'm always amazed by how much I can hear from the FOH mix. In fact, it bugs me if FOH is muted for rehearsal because everything sounds a lot different once it's on.

Sometimes monitors actually inhibit our ability to hear things. If I had my own guitar blasting in my monitor I wouldn't have been able to hear anything else around me. If my monitor is really loud I won't be able to hear some of the instruments in the room and I'll have to add them to my mix, making my monitor even louder and possibly covering up some other instrument I would have heard in the room. If I have my monitor really loud it will make it harded for the person next to me to hear what they need to hear in the room or in their monitor too. They'll turn their monitor up, then I can't hear or someone else can't hear and before you know it the stage level is blasting. I've been at places where the sound guy realized this cycle was happening and had to stop rehearsal to start monitor mixes from scratch. Not good.

Only relying on the monitor for things I need to hear
Because I want to hear things onstage and in the room I only add things to my monitor that I can't hear already - namely acoustic, lead vocals, and keys if there are any. If there's a drum shield (or an electric kit for some reason) I might put kick and snare in if I can't hear them well or if I'm only hearing a weird reflection that's out of time. I never put background vocals in my mix and when there are keys I keep them pretty low. I absolutely need to hear the drums for time. If I know the songs I could get by with ONLY hearing drums and my guitar, that's how it goes with tracking a recording some times. Next most important is hearing the vocals so it's easier to keep track of where I am in the song and hear vocal cues if we add a chorus on the fly or some other audible. Next I like a little acoustic since it often starts songs and lets me know I'm on the right chord if I don't know the song well enough. I keep the acoustic pretty low though, that way I can hear it when it starts songs or if there's a break where it keeps playing and I don't. When we're all playing it might get lost in the mix but that's ok, I don't really need it. Next I like bass for the chord changes and for the feel of the song. Sorry background vocals, it's not that I don't like you, it's just that I don't need to hear you and the fewer things I have to listen to, the better I'll hear what I need to hear. If it's getting hard to hear something in the monitor instead of asking for more if it, try turning down other instruments that are covering it up. It doesn't always work, but usually it gives good results. Plus the sound guy will occasionally say something like, "In the 5 years I've been mixing here, you're the first person to ask for something less in his mix. Thank you!!!" Actual quote :)

Trusting that things sound different FOH than they do in my mix
This one is so hard to get used to! It's really important for that balance between feeling it and having a loud stage volume though. I just ran into this yesterday at a wedding I was playing in. Two of us were playing acoustic and the other acoustic was singing too. Once the sound guy did his check and put us in FOH the other acoustic asked me if she should turn down the treble on her guitar because it sounded really bright now. Mine sounded the same, it was because the highs from FOH were bouncing off the back wall of the church and back to us. The mids and low were lost along the way but the walls were bouncing the highs back really well so everything sounded brighter. I'm sure it sounded just fine in the house but on stage it was bright. We could have changed our guitars EQ to sound good to us but it would have been really dull in the house. We just had to trust that it sounded right out there.

The temptation is to have a FOH mix in your monitor so it sounds like your sitting in the house. It's possible, but in my opinion, it will cause your monitor to be too loud and you'll lose clarity of the things you really need to hear. If you listen to the FOH speakers you'll hear the mix... with a bunch of reverb since you're hearing it off walls, but it's there. The point of a monitor is to let you hear what you need to hear. I'm not really sure how it happened, or like I said, maybe I'm just a freak (!) but I can get a feel for the music and dynamics with a really sparse mix. I have noticed, though, that I need to be able to hear the FOH, otherwise it feels really empty.

That brings me to a final point:

How things change for inears
So far I've only been talking about using wedges since the make a lot of stage noise. It's more important to have a quiet wedge than it is to have a quiet inear mix since you're the only one in your ears! With inears I still only put instruments I need to hear in the mix (sorry again BGVs) because it will still make things harder to pick out if you have a lot going on. Since my ears are sealed and I don't hear much of the room, I add bass and drums (usually just kick, snare, and high hat if I can't hear it in the snare mike - no cymbals or toms though). Even with a good inear mix I still lose the feel unless I can hear the room. If there are room mikes then I kiss the sound guy and add a good helping of room mike, if there aren't room mikes I pull on ear out (not all the way, just enough to break the seal so I can still hear the inear too). If the place you play has stereo inear consider yourself truly blessed! I've played with them at a few churches and it's heaven! If this is the case, make sure you pan things left and right. I really helps make things clearer. I usually put vocals, kick, and bass in the center; snare and high hat a little left and right your guitar and the lead guitar further left and right; and keys and whatever else way left and right. It makes it super easy to hear everything! My home church uses stereo inears and while they've had a room mike for a while, they just added STEREO room mikes and panned them left and right in my ear. Oh it was glorious!

Not the only way
That's just my way of doing it! I know good musicians who have other philosophies of setting a mix. What's yours?

Tube change!

2009-01-07T14:55:00.001-08:00

I noticed this week my tubes are taking longer to warm up and the low end is flabby. My amp didn't used to sound like this, so my tubes must be dying. I made it 15 months on these and I played a lot, so I guess that's about normal. I didn't change the preamp tubes last time and I'm not sure if the previous owner changed them the last time he changed tubes. I have a record of the date he changed them, but not whether it was power and pre, or just power. Preamp tubes can go a long time without being changed, but I'm saying it's time now.

I'm planning on getting Winged "C"s for the EL34 power tubes and Tung-Sol 12AX7 preamp tubes. I have Winged "C" power tubes right now and I like them. No idea what my current preamp tubes are but I've heard really good things about the Tung-Sols. To you guys that know way more about tubes: does that sound like a good plan?

I'm lucky to have a place called Savage Audio just a few miles from my house. They build amps and repair vintage stuff and do great work. The down side is they have a two week wait to change tubes. Last time I asked if I could be on a list and just bring my amp in when it's time but they said no, the amp has to sit on a shelf for 13 days, 23 hours, and 45 minutes until they get around to changing the tubes and biasing. I'd do it myself but I don't have the equipment for biasing and I don't want to shock myself to death draining capacitors. Plus they guarantee their work and are liable if they blow the amp up or shock themselves to death. I only have the one amp so I'll have to borrow amps here for a couple weeks. Now to find people with nice amps that aren't using them....

The rehearsal pheomina

2009-01-05T08:38:00.001-08:00

I've noticed a pattern that seems to happen every week I play at my "home" church. It goes something like this:

Rehearsal (a 45 minute practice right after soundcheck):
- I play timidly as I'm concentrating on listening to the other parts and making sure mine fit in
- I inevitably play a couple absolutely awful, out of key, notes while I'm experimenting/remember what parts I play that make the worship leader look over and smile/laugh at me.
- I start to think I should have practiced more

Run Through (a dress rehearsal with correct lighting and timing between songs):
- At least one transition will be far far faster than I expected and I'll scramble to switch effects fast enough and miss the first measure.
- I'll forget what I part I came up with for part of a song

First Service:
- Everything goes fine. No missed notes, transitions are clean, I remember all my parts and play confidently.

Second Service:
- Everything goes great. Everything is memorized and fun now.

Does anyone else have a similar ritual? Each week it blows my mind that I play so differently between the first rehearsal and the last service. It used to freak me out when I'd play timidly or make mistakes during rehearsal but I've started to realize that this just happens and I'll be fine by the first service. It makes it easier to laugh at myself at rehearsal and think "haha, don't do that next time." instead of "OMG, u suck at guitar." And yes, I think like a 16-year old girl texts for some reason.

Conference #2

2009-01-01T22:01:00.000-08:00

There's my setup for the last week or so. I have to say I got pretty spoiled being able to pick up whatever guitar will work best for a song and jumping on the Rhodes whenever I wanted. I got my set list for Church back home on Sunday and I was thinking about which guitar to use on each song... then I realized I'm only going to bring one guitar.

New years eve we played a bunch of cover songs for a dance party - Love shack, Hit me Baby One More Time, Fresh Prince theme, Sweet Home Alabama, etc. Then we did worship tunes at new years. The night was fun. The morning was a different story. We were supposed to play at 9:30am New Years morning after playing the party the night before. Luckily the speaker wanted to go long so we were just going to play one song at the start and the worship leader was going to do a solo acoustic song at the end of the talk. I went to bed late and next thing I knew someone was knocking at the door at 9:15 wondering why we weren't in the conference room. Oops! We threw on some clothes, went down, made sure our instruments worked, and jumped right into "Undignified." Once we were done with our only song I went back to the room and promptly fell back asleep. I can't say for sure, since I don't really remember, but I'm pretty sure I played Undignified in my sleep.

conference

2008-12-30T23:50:00.000-08:00

Whoo, I finally have some time off! I thought there was going to be tons of free time at this conference but the last few days have been eat, sleep (a little), rehearse. The good news is it's only the second day of the conference (though the band's been practicing for 4 days) and there are three days left. The band is finally feeling tight as of this afternoon, so the rest of the conference should be much easier than the first couple days.

Some highlights:

1) I get to play a Rhodes. Part of our plan was to just bring a bunch of instruments and find a use for them later. My area has my normal setup plus a 60s Fender Rhodes into a DL4 delay into a Fender Deville amp. I haven't played my DL4 in months so I've had a sweet reuntion!! It sounds amazing on the Rhodes. I'm using the lo res delay, reverse delay, and the auto swell - which I'm particularly fond of on the Rhodes. It sounds great and I'm a closet wanna be keyboardist, after a closet wanna be drummer of course. I remember enough from my years of piano lessons to work through chord progressions and lead lines I would play on guitar. I'm playing the rhodes as a pad (with the auto swell) at some points, and so far on one song I'm just playing the rhodes.

2) We also have a random american strat laying around and I've had some fun playing it through the fender amp when we're messing around. It tickles my blues ich. Someday I'd like to have a strat > fender amp setup. I can wait though :)

3) I still love the musicom EFX. I don't want to keep harping on it, but it's sooo so nice just hitting a button to switch effects and delay presets.

4) Like I said earlier, the band is finally getting really tight.... it only took 20 some hours over 4 days, haha. I guess we were never really not tight, but sometime today we passed a barrier and locked in. At first it took a lot of work to get new songs down but this afternoon we threw a coulpe together surprisingly fast. We're finally used to playing with each other and I noticed we're adding our own style to everything. It's been a fun thing to experience. Especially since most places I play have different players each week.

How to manage your gear in cold weather

2008-12-24T09:04:00.000-08:00

This is a picture I took on my phone yesterday on the way to work. An elderly man in a mechanics suit driving a pink scooter through a slushy road. Don't treat your gear like this.

This is a special Christmas post dedicated to handling guitar gear in cold weather. This might not apply to you in TX, CA, Costa Rica, or anywhere that calls a diet mt. dew "Coke." But for the cold states, it's a must. Here are the problems we have to deal with:

1) Wood and nitro finishes. Materials contract when they're cold and expand when they're hot. Guitars and their finishes can handle getting extremely cold and extremely hot as long as it's a slow temperature change. The problem comes when the temperature changes too quickly. That's when things crack, split, explode, and generally hinder the guitar's ability to make music. A lot of people like to baby their gear and I hear the phrase, "I don't let my gear sleep anywhere I wouldn't." In a sense, I agree with that and whenever possible I go that rout. However, not all of us can turn down gigs because our gear will get cold. There are times gear will ride in an unheated trailer through negative temps and we have to deal. They key is to help slow the temperature changes. Guitar cases have a great way of slowly warming up and colling down on the inside - as long as the case stays shut. If your guitar is cold leave it in a warm space closed for as long as you can. The longer the better but I'd say an hour at a minimum, two if you can help it, and "until you need it next" if there's no urgency. After the first hour or two crack the case open, fan it a few times, and close it again. This will help slowly mix the warmer air in. Solid body guitars are less effected by the cold but if they have nitro finish, the finish can crack. For semi-hallow or acoustic guitar, warming the case is a must or the thin wood can crack.

NOTE: If you have an ovation or another brand of guitar that uses a plastic back... you're screwed. The plastic expands and contracts at a different rate than the wood and the face will crack if the guitar gets too hot or cold.

2) Condensation. Objects that are warmer than the surrounding air will pull moisture out of the air and make condensation. Guitars are fine in their case so amps are the worry here. Road cases are idea and will solve the problem, if that's not an option go for the vinyl or plastic covers you can get for amps. This won't be a problem if the amp is in a trailer or in a car, but if it's exposed to the outside air - like in the bed of a truck - it can be a problem. Your bigger problem is probably thieves though.

3) Cold speakers. If you're waiting for your guitars to warm up, this won't be a problem but it should be noted that using cold speakers is a bad idea. There are a lot of small sliding parts that reply on friction and other fabric parts that reply in stretching. Using these parts frozen is a bad idea. Speakers should warm up quickly though.

My biggest tip - If you're just driving yourself around, warm up the car before you load it! And don't load until you're about to leave. That way whatever's in your car won't have a chance to cool down. Stuff in your trunk will get cold but depending on the case it can take a while for stuff to cool down. I put my amp in the drunk in a road case and after a 25 min drive it's barely colder inside than out.

Keep warm! Merry Christmas eve.
Mike

Catch up post - Anberlin, lessons hind sight, and gestation

2008-12-22T10:25:00.000-08:00

Busy times! Between Christmas, traveling for work, and having an enormous pile of music to learn, I haven't had much free time. I have a couple random thoughts I've been meaning to write about.

1) I love this song by Anberlin - "Miserable Visu (Ex Malo Bonum)". Anberlin's latest album has some great guitar parts. I particularly like the solo from Mierable Visu ( at 4:10).

This is totally unrelated to anything else in this post. Just like the song!

2) I've been figuring out how I learn and figuring out what a gestation period is. I think gestation is supposed to refer to being pregnant and making a baby in your belly, but it gets thrown around with learning music too. The idea is that when you first learn something, that skill hasn't yet "been born" fully. Once you've built up the skill, or gestated it, it will be born and alive. Or something. I don't like the idea of my scales having placenta.

I like the language metaphor better. When you learn a new language there's a period when you can speak the language but you really have to think about it and translate in your head. You can't speak conversationally yet. After you use the language and the words you know for long enough, you don't have to think about it and it comes naturally. Conversationally. Music is a language too and learning a new aspect is like learning a new word or a new way to conjugate verbs. When you first learn a new skill on guitar it's not conversational yet. Only after you've practiced it and used it enough that it becomes natural can you use it conversationally.

Sadly my gestation period is longer than I thought it would be. I'd like to think I can learn something new, practice it for few minutes, and then throw it around in musical conversation. But I can't. I realized this a few weeks ago when I was playing some bends and I noticed I was doing them in time and in tune without having to think about it at all. This is something I started working on in September and just now is it natural. I guess my point is, if something seems like it's taking forever to learn, don't worry about it. It will come with time. Just keep working on it!

3) You might have read that last paragraph and said to yourself, "Mike just started learning to bend in September?" Thanks for the question, that's a good segue to my next topic. Looking at my lessons in hind-sight. If you haven't read much of my blog, you should know I started taking lessons about 5 months ago after a 12 year break from lessons. When I look back now, I realize the first few weeks/months were spent just fixing the bad technique I had picked up over the years. Bends, for instance, were something I hadn't worked with much. I played a lot of rhythm and acoustic guitar up until 3 years ago and you don't do many bends on rhythm or acoustic. When I did need bends on lead electric I just hacked through it and always bend down (towards the floor) except on the high e string. My teacher taught me how to do it right and now bends are in my arsenal of sounds. I also did pull-offs weird when I used my pinky, was using a pick that was way too light, moved my fingers inefficiently (too much movement), and a slew of other weird things. It wasn't very fun to find out all the things I was doing wrong and when I tried to change them all at once it made for some frustrating times. Going pack to #2, I was in the gestation period for a lot of aspect of my playing and I had to think about everything I was doing. I hated that time! At one point I didn't play for a week and then went back to stuff I knew before I started working on the new stuff again. I had to take a pretty big step backwards before I could move forward. Now it's great, I'm used to my pick, how I use both hands more efficiently, and the other stuff I worked on. I can play conversationally again, and better than I could before the lessons. Good news!

There's a point to this section too! Don't let bad technique go unchecked for years! Part of my problem was I didn't play with guitarists who were better than me or ask better guitarists to watch me and tell me what I'm doing wrong. I watched a lot of good guitarists, but there are things I was doing that I didn't realize. I need another set of eyes and ear for critique. I don't need someone to say, "wow, you're awesome," I need someone to say, "Good job, but..." Ok, maybe I need one of each :)

weight lifting for your rhythm

2008-12-13T20:40:00.001-08:00

Have you ever done a weight lifting program? There's this weird phenomenon that happens after a few weeks... every day things seem lighter. You know you're getting stronger because you're increasing the weight at the gym, but some times at home you feel like superman when you go to pick up something heavy and you're surprised at how much easier it is.

I've decided the same thing happens with rhythm and working out to the metronome. I didn't think a metronome would make a big difference. In fact, I thought it would make my rhythm worse because I'd be relying on something external instead of building up my internal rhythm. That couldn't be further from the truth, working with a metronome actually builds up your internal rhythm. I've been using a metronome more and more for practicing over the past few months and I recently noticed that weight lifting phenomenon with rhythm. Suddenly I feel the beat much stronger and notice minor rhythm problems I didn't notice before.

I have a crappy little metronome but it keeps time and didn't cost much. If you don't have one, get one for Christmas! If you have one try just turning it on when you're playing through songs your working on or practicing scales. You'll notice the change!

Things from this weekend

2008-12-08T09:16:00.000-08:00

I had a busy but good weekend and I'm left with a few unconnected thoughts. Here they are in no particular order:

Loving the G&L. When I first got the G&L I went through a honeymoon period where it was all I played. When that period ended I decided my other guitars were feeling neglected so I've been playing them and ignoring the G&L. I used the G&L at two churches this weekend, for the first time since I built my new pedal board, and I was loving the sounds that came out! This may have been the first time I played the G&L through the Tim overdrive. Oh so sweet. I still love my ES-137, but after yesterday the G&L might be my favorite.

Blue Ray. I was watching John Mayer's "Where the light is"... again... on DVD Friday night. We have a HD TV and I watch a HD music channel that has live concerts all day long and a sad though crossed my mind as I was watching the DVD, "DVDs are worse than cable TV." To make things worse my house mate who installs high end home theaters for a living walked in, looked at it, and asked if it was TV or a DVD. I could tell by his tone he was saying, "that doesn't look very good." I had him look up what kind of costs he can get on a blue ray player since he gets all sorts of vendor deals. Unfortunately good (note: good) blue ray players are still expensive, even with his discount. On a whim he called a retail store he used to work at to see if they have any last-year models on clearance. They had one left for the player he recommended and in order to get rid of it they had marked it down 60%. That was a steal so we went and got it! We stopped by my housemate's showroom and grabbed "Where the light is" on blue ray and took it home, hooked everything up, and watched it. Oh. My. Gosh. The difference was stunning. The picture was about what I expected from an HD source but the audio blew me away! I didn't realize the strides audio formats have made since Dolby digital. This disc was encoded with TrueHD in 96KHz/24 bit and we have the player hooked up to the receiver with multi-channel analog cables (basically means no digital compression, bit for bit transfer). Anyway, that's a bunch of tech speak to say it sounded AMAZING! The individual sounds aren't necessarily more clear, but the 3D image (where the sound sits in a surround sound mix) was crystal clear. I could go on and on about this but I'll just leave it at "I'm blown away by Blue Ray in ways I didn't expect."

Rockin at church. I know this goes against most of what I say on this blog. I preach simplicity and serving the song, but when the worship leader says he wants a rock song... I'll bring it :) Last week when I wasn't playing they did some Christmas tunes in a country style. This week we did Christmas songs in a rock style. I was told, "think Foo Fighters 'All My Life'" for Angels we have Heard on High. Haha, ok. Don't try this at home, but during the solo I played a 24 note measure (eighth note triplets at 130 bmp). Good to get that out of my system from time to time!!

DIY Tap Tempo fun

2008-12-04T08:07:00.000-08:00

I've had this thing done for a while now but I didn't realize it was actually working until last night. Whenever I tried to use it with the time factor it didn't do anything when I pressed down the switch but when I released the switch it turned on "infinite repeat" on the TF. I assumed I had wired it backwards so the circuit was completing on release instead of when the switch is down but when I finally broke out the TF manual last night, I realized I just had the TF set wrong. I had done everything correctly for setting up tap tempo, but you can set up multiple controls on the TF for a single switch and I realized "infinite repeat" was set to go on or off whenever the circuit is broken. That explains why it was changing on release. I changed the TF so it doesn't do anything when the circuit is broken and now tapping works. Hooray!

The nice thing is I haven't needed an external tap yet. All the drummers I've played with over the past few months have used a click so I just set the BPMs, save as a preset, and recall that preset when the song starts. I love drummers who use the click! The only exception is my cover band where we don't use a click. I only use delay on a few of our songs and I use the Memory Lane, not the Time Factor, for those anyway.

If you want to make your own tap check our Phil's blog DIY Tap Tempo and How to build your own tap tempo pedal - it's what I used!

Giving the Time Factor some love

2008-12-02T14:37:00.000-08:00

I'm playing at a conference over new years and I've been putting together presets for all the songs since rehearsal starts later this week. Until recently, I hadn't spent much time with the Time Factor. I spent a few hours with it when I got it and made a few presets I liked but since then I had just been tweaking the tempos and going between quarter and dotted eighth notes based on the song. I decided it was time to get to know this thing better. Here's what I learned (these aren't all specific to the TF... they will work on any delay):

Dual delays - The time factor can do two delays in parallel (they don't delay off each other, just the dry signal). When I first played with it I experimented with using two different rhythms for each delay. I tried things like dotted eighth and quarter notes and all sorts of rhythms that don't line up with each other. I know some people use this well but it always ended up sounding like garbage to me. It gets weird delays that are a sixteenth note apart and things like that. I decided I didn't need two delays and forgot about it... until now. I found a new use - accenting beats with the second delay. I'm using two delays on a few songs now, but I make sure the rhythms line up. Quarter and half notes, triplets and quarter notes, quarter and dotted half notes. What that does is keep the smaller of the two rhythms constant but puts an accent on certain beats. I also came up with a cool way to do dotted eighths. The first delay does a single repeat on a dotted eighth, the second delay does 5 or 6 delays on a dotted eighth then I set the first delay to be a bit louder than the second. The result is a fairly strong first repeat then a trail of quieter repeats. Muy bien!

Band Delay - This is the delay that has a moving filter on the repeats (like having a wah on the repeats). I originally dismissed this as a weird gimmick, mostly because the built in preset for this mode IS gimmicky, but I've grown to like it. On a few songs I'm turning the filter all the way off and just using the delay. It's a little smoother (by that I mean less attack on each repeat) than the other modes. You can also change the resolution and darkness of the repeats to a certain extent. This delay (with the filter turned off) is actually what I expected the "vintage delay" to be. I was looking for something to come close to the "Lo-Res" setting on the DL4 and on paper the vintage delay mode should be it. I think band delay is actually the better substitute. I also played with leaving the filter on a low setting so there's a slow subtle wah in the background. On one song I set the filter to a pretty fast speed (about the speed of a quater note on the song which is around 75 bpm) but still on a really subtle setting. I gives almost a tremolo effect on the repeats.

Modulation - I'm not a fan of pitch-based effects so I've been really slow to appreciate modulation in delays. It finally happened though. I like a small amount of modulation in a lush delay. I was playing with a delay for "Yes We Will" by Justin Bender (song is on his myspace). It's a pretty open song and a lot of it I just play on the down beat of the measure and let the delay fill in the other 3 beats. I found a good tape delay set to dotted eighths and I figured I'd turn on a little modulation just to see what it sounded like. Whoa! It totally filled everything in. The mod on the tape delay tries to simulate the stretching of a tape delay so it's not modulating in a uniform tempo, I really liked it, especially on this open of a song.

Where have you been all my life?

2008-11-26T07:23:00.000-08:00

Transposing music is my least favorite thing to do. It's not that I'm bad at it, it just takes a lot of time and it's tedious. When I learn a new song I'd rather have the parts written out and the chords written down so I can spend my time playing or coming up with variations - not spend my time listening to the song and figuring out the chords/lead lines.

It's always bugged me that there aren't many tabs out there for worship songs. I have a love/hate relationship with tabs because 90% of tabs (maybe higher?) are wrong, but at least they give you a good place to start.

With all that said... I was really happy to come across this site yesterday: http://guitarpraise.blogspot.com/

They have the most worship tabs I've seen and from the one's I looked at, they're mostly correct! Check it out, it's a good resource.

Two guitars and voices

2008-11-25T09:25:00.000-08:00

I've talked a lot about how electric guitar fits into a full band (drums, bass, two guitars, maybe keys) but I haven't talked about playing in smaller settings - like just two guitars and some voices. These smaller groups can get a rap as small time, usually because it's a couple guys who don't know a bass player or drummer and are forced to be an acoustic duo, but if it's done right, it can be just as powerful as a full band. Here are my tips for playing in a small band like this:

First, get into a different mentality. You have to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of a small band in order to make the most of it. I love the intimacy it can provide and the silent spaces between phrases you don't get with a full band. It won't, however, have the drive you'll get from bass and drums. I've you've ever seen MTVs unplugged or heard a song you like done acoustic, you've probably noticed the acoustic version is more chill. Get in that mentality... chill.

Advice for the rhythm player:
Congratulations, you're playing three instruments now - bass, drums, and acoustic. You'll have to make up for the loss of bass and drums by filling in their roles. In a 4/4 song the drums will hit the bass drum on 1 and 3 and the snare on 2 and 4. Bass follows the bass drum for the most part but will almost always have the loudest accent on beat 1. You can incorporate all these ideas into your playing by hitting the root note of your chord on beat 1 (playing the basses note and hitting where the bass drum would hit) and accent your strum on 2 and 4 (accenting where the snare would accent). Now I'm not saying to only hit your strings on the quarter notes, I'm saying to accent those beats within your strum patterns. Listen to some acoustic songs and you'll most likely hear what I'm talking about. Chances are you're naturally accenting these beats anyway!

Advice for the second guitar:
Never ever, ever, ever play the same thing as the rhythm player. That's the biggest piece of advice I can give! It will sound like one guitar if you do and won't add anything. The capo is your friend. If you want to strum chords like the rhythm player, capo and play in a different register. For instance, if the rhythm player is playing in E, capo 2 and play in D. Having two guitars playing in different registers and in different voicing (what you'll be doing if you capo) makes a big sound. It sounds kind of like a 12-string.

Decide if you're playing acoustic or electric. You'll find more acoustic duos out there than acoustic and electric duos, but both have their place. Believe it or not, playing acoustic will give you more drive. "But electric guitar is rock and roll," you might say. "Kind of," I'll respond, "drums, bass, and electric are rock and roll. Electric on it's own is not." Electric guitar doesn't have much kick to it. When you combine it with bass and drums it gives an amazing sound - my favorite combination of instruments, actually. But on it's own it's squishy. Acoustic, on the other hand, has punch to it. The down side of acoustic is there's very little sustain to notes. If you try to play an electric part on an acoustic guitar it's going to sound smaller because the notes won't blend together and each individual note will die faster. If you want to play something that sustains, grab your electric. On acoustic, to get around the sustain problem, I like to find ways to add open strings to what I'm playing, or capo to make open (technically hitting the capo) strings ring out. They'll sustain better than a note you finger and it gives you more notes to work with.

Vocal harmonies are huge in small groups too. If the second guitarist doesn't sing harmony, try to find a singer to sing with the two of you. It really fills the vocals out.

Here are some video examples of what I'm talking about:

Shane and Shane singing Rocks won't Cry. This is in 6/8 so my 2&4 suggestion doesn't hold true, but you can hear how they still accent certain beats.

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds - Christmas Song. My favorite acoustic duo! Showing how simple you can get and how adding silence is ok.

Matt Wertz - Red Meets Blue. Audience recording so there's tons of reverb. This is a great example of how to play electric and acoustic together. The electric fills the room and Matt plays percussively on acoustic.

Those little knobs on the guitar - part 2

2008-11-21T22:32:00.000-08:00

Two months have gone by since I wrote Those little knobs on the gutiar and I've progressed in how I'm using them. I figure it's time for round two.

For single volume, single tone knobbed guitars, not much has changed. I use volume to control the amount of gain and tone to control the tone. Simple enough.

Using my 4 knob (volume for each pick up and tone for each pickup) has evolved some. I realized I can't constantly be tweaking 4 knobs so I've come up with a hybrid method that only uses the volume knobs. I set both volumes at 7 (which is balanced for my guitar) and set up my amp and pedals to gain and EQ as I like. This works great for most stuff but I've always had a problem, specifically to the style of music most worship stuff follows - mellow lead lines (like in How Great is our God or Enough sound a little thin and when a song gets loud my chords can get lost in the mix. My solution before was to switch to the neck pickup for mellow stuff and bridge pickup when the chords are getting lost. That works but it's kind of abrupt and extreme.

Lately I've been using my volume knobs to use both pickups but blend them towards the bridge pickup for towards the neck pickup. When I want the mellow stuff, I'll keep both pickups on (toggle switch in the middle) but turn the volume up for the neck pickup (also bumps the gain which I like because playing single note stuff doesn't give as much gain as digging into chords). When it goes to chordal stuff I'll put the neck pickup back to 7 so they're balanced. If we get to a particularly loud part where my guitar isn't cutting, instead of switching all the way to the bridge pickup I'll leave the pickups blended but turn up the volume on the bridge pickup, or possibly turn the neck pickup volume down if I'm really digging in and getting too much gain.

So far this has been working great and and it gives a lot more control over my tone than just switching between pickups.

Here's a graphic to illustrate. I don't have photoshop on this computer so I had to make in in MS Paint like it's 1991. If it doesn't help, at least it will be funny to look at...

Mike and the adventure of the rack

2008-11-18T20:06:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time a guitar player named Mike didn't like his guitar player speakers. They were full ick and prick, scoop and goop, marsh and harsh.

So he searched for new guitar player speakers.

Guitar scientists combine Aluminum, Nickle and Copper to make a special speaker they call the AlNiCo Blue. Mike had to have this special speaker.

So he got it.

But Mike had a problem!

His guitar amplifier was too strong for his new speakers. The speakers would explode and shoot right out of the guitar player cabinet if Mike played too loud!!

So Mike thought about it.

And Mike figured out what he needed: A transmogifier attenuator.

And since Mike had to get a transmorgifier attenuator, he might has well get a rack to put it in.
And since he already had a transmogifier attenuator and a rack, he might as well get a rack EQ.
And since he already had a transmogifier attenuator and a rack, and a rack EQ, he might as well get a power conditioner.
And since he already had a transmogifier attenuator and a rack, and a rack EQ, and a power conditioner he might as well get the reverb pedal that he's always wanted but didn't have room for.

So Mike got them all.

Mike hooked them all up. Guitar to pedalboard, pedalboard to rack, rack to amp, amp to transmorgifier attenuator, transmorgifier attenuator to speaker cabinet, plus to plus, minus to plus, minus to minus, he hooked them all up! And WHOLA!

It worked.

But it didn't sound good.

Mike tweaked and geeked, listened and rechristened, twisted and persisted. But nothing worked.

It didn't sound good.

So Mike looked for new guitar player speakers. Mike met Jim the Scumback who had spent all the money in the world to make the perfect guitar player speakers.

So he got them!

Mike hooked them all up. Guitar to pedalboard, pedalboard to rack, rack to amp, amp to speaker cabinet (no transmorgifier attenuator this time!), plus to plus, minus to plus, minus to minus, he hooked them all up! And WHOLA!

It sounded GREAT!

Now Mike still had his rack of toys but didn't need the transmorgifier attenuator (which was why he got the rack in the first place, mind you!) but he kept it because the rack looked silly without it.

Mike carried the rack of toys with him everywhere he went. It weighed as much as a tree but mike was very good at carrying it. He didn't care about the transmorgifier attenuator, but he carried it. He started to not care about the reverb pedal, but he carried it. He started to not care about the power conditioner, but he carried it.

Why did he carry it?

Because he really liked the rack EQ. It might seem silly to carry something that weighs as much as a tree just for a little equalizer, but Mike is a guitar player and this kind of thing is normal.

Then one day Mike noticed an evil noise coming from his amp. It buzzed and fuzzed, hummed and crummed, fizzled and drizzled. So Mike decided to find the noise. He checked power and cables, knobs and switches, connections and glitches and finally found the problem.

It was the rack EQ.

Mike tried everything but he couldn't get the rack EQ to stop making the evil noise! So he had to stop using it.

Now Mike had a rack with a rack EQ he didn't use, a transmorgifier attenuator he didn't use, a power conditioner he didn't need, and a reverb he didn't care about anymore. So Mike asked himself why he kept carrying something that weighed as much as a tree everywhere he went, when he didn't actually need it?

Then Mike stopped carrying the rack that weighs as much as a tree everywhere he went.

THE END.

-A children's story by Mike Allen. Illustrations coming soon.

Note from the author: After checking the EQs specs it's looking for a balanced, line level signal so feeding it an unbalanced instrument level signal was causing it to freak out. I worked on my amp's tone stack and found something I'm happy with. Good bye rack. I'm still keeping the reverb around but selling the rest.

Taking it slow

2008-11-17T20:50:00.000-08:00

My thumb needs a break. I've been learning "sweet child of mine" and my hand it getting cramps! I got the intro down tonight, but looking ahead to the solo... that's going to take some time. It's been a while since I've learned a "hard" song, and my "hard" I mean one that takes more than an hour to learn. It's good for me though. My hand is cramped because I just played the intro about 700 times in a row. I don't have the studies to back this up, but my high school band teacher told me that our muscle memory will develop faster for a task if it's done the exact same way over and over. The speed isn't that important, it's the movements that are. He told us if you try to play something hard up to speed right away but keep making mistakes it will actually slow your progress since you're planting the wrong way to play it in your brain as well as the right way. He was big on playing it slow until you can do it right, then bringing it up to speed. Like I said I don't know the science behind it, but it's always seemed right to me. Sweet child of mine is at 126 bpm so I started at 80 until I could play it right, then moved up 5 bmp until I was at 130 (overachiever!) I'll probably do it every day this week and after that it will magically be in my hands and I won't have to think about it anymore.

*grabs his soap box and steps up* So much of guitar is about time. Talent will get you so far, after that it's about work and putting in the hours. Think of how good of a player you were 5 years ago compared to now. You'll be that much better in 5 more years if you keep at it. I hate to blame "culture" but our culture really worships youth. I play with a bass player who just turned 48 and he's a MONSTER player - because of the time he's put into it. If you think you can't rock when you're over 25 you obviously missed The Who on their reunion tour. I hope to be playing windmills when I'm 80 or 120 or however old Pete Townshend is now. They say it takes 10,000 hours to master a craft. In fact, I just came across this great article everyone should read. It's mostly about Bill Joy who is big in the computer world, but it applies to any craft. Here's an except from the article:

In the early 90s, the psychologist K Anders Ericsson and two colleagues set up shop at Berlin's elite Academy of Music. With the help of the academy's professors, they divided the school's violinists into three groups. The first group were the stars, the students with the potential to become world-class soloists. The second were those judged to be merely "good". The third were students who were unlikely ever to play professionally, and intended to be music teachers in the school system. All the violinists were then asked the same question. Over the course of your career, ever since you first picked up the violin, how many hours have you practised?

Everyone, from all three groups, started playing at roughly the same time - around the age of five. In those first few years, everyone practised roughly the same amount - about two or three hours a week. But around the age of eight real differences started to emerge. The students who would end up as the best in their class began to practise more than everyone else: six hours a week by age nine, eight by age 12, 16 a week by age 14, and up and up, until by the age of 20 they were practising well over 30 hours a week. By the age of 20, the elite performers had all totalled 10,000 hours of practice over the course of their lives. The merely good students had totalled, by contrast, 8,000 hours, and the future music teachers just over 4,000 hours.

The curious thing about Ericsson's study is that he and his colleagues couldn't find any "naturals" - musicians who could float effortlessly to the top while practising a fraction of the time that their peers did. Nor could they find "grinds", people who worked harder than everyone else and yet just didn't have what it takes to break into the top ranks. Their research suggested that once you have enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That's it. What's more, the people at the very top don't just work much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder.

Inspiring?

*steps off his soap box and goes back to practicing*

... and I intended to write about the noise my EQ was making lately. That got off subject fast...

Happy belated birthday

2008-11-12T21:18:00.000-08:00

Aw! I just missed my amps birthday. I was reading comments on lespauldoctor's blog about tubes and I had to run downstairs and see what brand of tubes I have. I thought I had JJ EL34s but it turns out I have Winged C EL34s. I remembered when I saw it. Doh. Since I already had a flashlight pointed in the head's vents, I decided took look around. For an old amp it's looking really good! No rust or anything. I came across a sticker from when my tubes were last replaced/biased and it was only a year ago, so I think I'm good for a bit more. Then I came across the original sticker from then the amp was made. Along with some quality control signatures, it said:

ENG
26-10-72

Hand-wired in London, England on October 26, 1972. Happy 36th birthday. Along the way it was modded for a half power switch and separate gain/volume which is a life saver... they made the superbasses extra loud for a 100W amp but it's reasonable with the separate gain. I love this amp.

Mike's heirarchy of music

2008-11-10T11:57:00.000-08:00

I play with drummers that seem to either play to a click all the time or never. Some of the "never's" have great tempo and never vary... but some don't. It bugs me when the tempo changes. I have to listen to my delay to make sure it's not off tempo and listen hard to the drums to make sure I'm locked in. If the bass is off from the drums it's even more to think about. I especially noticed all this yesterday... because the bass and drums were rock solid. The drummer played to a click and the bass was right in sync. It was so nice! I didn't have to think about rhythm at all and it freed me up to concentrate on better things. I think it's like Maslov's hierarchy of needs - you know:

I think I have "Mike's hierarchy of music" that goes something like this:

Emotion (super great music as a band)
Movement (dynamics/timber as a band)
Cohesion (locking parts together as a band)
Individual best parts (best notes/best rhythms)
Individual correctness (right key/in tempo)

In Maslov's hierarchy, you don't worry about social needs until your physiological needs are met. In mine you don't worry about playing dynamics until you're playing the right notes. Maybe these aren't hard rules, but it works out this way for me. Sometimes I don't memorize my music because I'm feeling lazy and I can get by sight reading a chart, but I notice a big difference when I'm really prepared. When I'm not concentrating on reading the music or playing the right notes, I'm free to take my playing to the next level. Maybe my brain is just small, but I don't think about dynamics if I'm sight reading a chart. I've also noticed bands don't tend to use dynamics and really listen to each other if they're not playing tightly. If Joe the bassist is off in his own bass world, chances are the band isn't going to make great music.

So what does this mean? If a band plans on making great music each person needs to spend time at home working out parts and memorizing music. Rehearsal should be focused on cohesion and movement, not learning parts. A lot of it comes down to experience and musicianship but there's also a good amount of just being prepared.

fuzz hates buffer, TS loves low voltage

2008-11-07T23:01:00.000-08:00

I was playing around with my board last night and remembered a few things:

1) Germanium fuzz HATES a buffer before it. I forgot I had always played with the peppermint fuzz without the musicom until last week. I tried to use it at the halloween gig and it sounded like crap so I just used the OCD for what I was doing. I played with it last night and I thought I had broken it or the battery was on its last leg or something. Then I remembered the musicom has a buffer before the 1st and 5th loops and you can bypass the first one for fuzzes. I turned the buffer off and poof, the fuzz went back to being a fuzz, not a farty spitty 8-bit tone destroyer.

2) I forgot I had moved the tube screamer to a different output on the pedal power II and hadn't changed the SAG level yet. I usually leave the SAG about half way down. Man does it make a difference! It softens the attack and makes it smoother all around. I know a lot of you have TSs and PP2s. If you haven't played with the SAG and TS you should try it, you might find a different sound in there. It might not be the tone you want at all, but I like it. Come to think of it, I wonder if the blues driver could use some SAG.......

slide, slide, slig-it-y-slide

2008-11-07T07:57:00.001-08:00

I went to Willies guitars the other night. Check out their site, they have crazy vintage gear. I played a 64' strat and a 58' P-bass and was tempted by their never ending supply of 60s blackface fender amps. My GAS was out of control so I knew I needed to find something cheap to get before I blew my life savings. I decided to get a slide. I already have a brass slide I hardly ever use... but maybe I just don't use it because it's brass and too bright. If I have a ceramic slide I'll use it more. At least that's what my crazy GASed rational told me. So I got it.

Anyone use these? I like the idea of a slide and I know the basics of how to work it, I think my technique is just so awful that I never like the sound I get. I think I'll learn how to use it right. I have a lesson tonight so I'll have my teacher show me the magic. Do you have any tips? Do you ever use a slide?

Warming up

2008-11-06T11:39:00.000-08:00

I recently realized I need to do a better job of warming up before gigs. I do a good job at home when I practice but when I play out somewhere time is usually limited and as soon as I get set up it's time for sound check and rehearse. The first song or two in rehearsal is usually relatively rough for everyone in the band as we get used to our mixes and our bodies warm up. I wonder if I could speed that up by getting there a few minutes earlier and running through some hand exercises before sound check.

I've also realized it's important to mentally warm up and when I'm playing at church, spiritually warm up. When I play at my sunday night church there's a 5:00 & 7:00 service. The band prays together and talks through the music before the 5:00, but between services we eat dinner (in about 30 minutes) and then go strait to playing again. There have been several times where we start the first song and my brain is still at dinner. I think I'll try finding my own little space and spend a few minutes getting ready.

This picture has nothing to do with the post, but I took it at my halloween gig and I want to post it!

complete!

2008-11-04T09:45:00.001-08:00

...for a while at least. I won't try to tell myself this is never going to change, but hopefully I'm done for a bit. I like how everything sounds right now. I got my Tim last night and I didn't have enough time to find all the ins and outs, but I had long enough to know it's a keeper! I must have measured well because it fit right in my "missing tooth" spot on the board.

Last weekend I was a dork and ran my cab down the hall and shut it in a bedroom, miked it, and listened to everything through our studio speakers and headphones. I re-EQed my amp to compliment the mike and speakers. I'm amazed at how non-marshall-y my marshall can sound. Using an open back cab lets it breath a lot more and by bumping the EQ up around 10kHz I can get that Vox chime too. I was able to get a clean tone I was happy with, and the OCD sounds great. My big dissappointment was with the Keeley BD-2. It sound great with bluesy lead stuff, but pretty aweful on chords and invervals. There's a fizz to it that won't go away and was really bugging me. It also stacks terribly with a tube screamer. I'll keep it for what it's good at but it wouldn't work as my main low gain. Thank goodness the Tim came the next day! No fizziness and it stacks well.

Here's the board with the Tim:

2008-10-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

Done for now! I used the board on Saturday for a rehersal and Sunday night at church. My favorite part is how the Musicom sends MIDI changes to the time factor to call up presets. The musicom is super easy to use and I was able to make changes on the fly on Sunday when we rehearsed. Even changing the tempo of a song wasn't too hard. Good deal. Here are new pics, click to enlarge:

(with room for a TIM [within weeks!] or other OD on the left)

(showing how stealth the wires/cables are)

(Lava Cable for the win! Nothing else would have fit like this)

ode to my housemates

2008-10-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

I live with three guys I've know for years in a big house that we rent. The living situation is great but lately I realized how lucky I am to live with these guys. Here are a couple quotes that emphasize my point:

"Whoa" - Joe M. said as we were watching "out of my mind" on the the new John Mayer DVD (Where the Light is - which is AWESOME! Go get it). I respond, "What, how he just bent the 2nd up to the 3rd even though though it's not in the blues scale but works over the I7 chord? Oh so tasty." "No, that fill!" said Joe - a drummer. I talk to so many guitar players I forget other musicians listen and watch for different things. Joe's played drums since before I knew how to whistle and while he's the most technical and musical drummer I've ever played with, he's also the only one I've ever know to obsess over drum tone. TONE. He doesn't just hit it, he doesn't just hit it in the sweet spot, he hits it in the place where it gets the specific tone he wants at that moment. He'll spend a day auditioning cymbals like I will auditioning overdrives and he hears the difference between new and vintage cymbals - when they used to rib both sides before they "refined" the process, as he would say. Among other things, he reminds me to listen to other parts of the song and lock in.

"[some profound explanation]" ok, that's a lame quote but I'll explain. My other housemate, Ryan, has played violin since he was a kid and picked up bass few years ago. He's also managed to become a super good sound engineer, both live and in the studio. He's the smartest person I know and music/physics/the art of mixing just make sense to him. My lame quote could be one of the numerous answers he's give me to sound questions or just something he said in conversation when we're talking music. He's helped me EQ my gear and taught me to make it sound good in the context of a full band, not just in the basement by myself. He never thinks of my tone my it's self, always in context of drums, bass, vox, acoustic, etc., like it's one of the channels in his mixer soloed.

"What makes this guitar $1,000 better than your old one?" Haha. Joe W. keeps me honest from time to time. He has thousands of dollars of audio equipment in his room though, so he can't give me too much crap. Joe and I used to build speaker cabinets together in high school and basically anything that looks good on my new pedal board is because he helped or did it for me! He has an electronic degree which means he knows the secrets to how pedals work. We almost built a buffer together but that's been it so far.

This is just a small number of reasons why I'm lucky to live with these guys and I happened to base all these around music/guitar but they're a huge blessing in lots of areas, not just music!

The posts that no one read

2008-10-21T14:26:00.000-07:00

I'm shamelessly plugging my blog on my own blog. I think I missed the point, but here goes. The very first thing I wrote on this blog was "Fitting into the band" parts 1-4. It was kind of the reason I started this blog in the first place and is like my thesis of playing guitar. Back when I wrote it my co-worker was the only one who read them so I'm rehashing. If you haven't ventured back 6 months in blog posts, here are the originals:

fitting into the band - part 1 - making a song

fitting into the band - part 2 - knowing when and when not to play

fitting into the band - part 3 - knowing our role

fitting into the band - part 4 - Moving as a band

Getting there!!

2008-10-17T07:27:00.000-07:00

As of last night, my pedal board is tolexed and I have the plexi cut to size. I still need to attach the plexi, attach the PP2 to the bottom, velcro pedals, and wire the whole thing. Wiring is going to be a beast. Since I'm using effects loops for everything I need something like 19 cables and 38 plugs. I'm using the new right-angle solderless plugs from Lava and ELC mini cable. I needed tiny plugs to fit in the musicom effects switcher so lava won even though it cost a bit more. here's what the board looks like:
(click to enlarge)

I didn't put all the pedals on for the picture (don't even have some of them yet!) but here's how it should turn out:

Used gear

2008-10-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

There's a saying, "Buy used, play for free." What it means is, when you buy used gear, you can often sell it for the same price you paid. Aside from shipping it didn't cost you anything to play with that gear for a while.

I've been going through more gear lately... sometimes just buying stuff to hear what it sounds like with no real intention of keeping it! It'd be ridiculous to pay full price and turn around and sell it for 30% less so I've fallen in love with buying used. It's a little more work and often involves waiting longer, but it's worth it to save the chedda (yes I use 90's hip hop slang).

Today I realized I have all these sites tucked away for finding deals so I figured I'd share em. You probably have sites that aren't on my list... so help me out and tell me what they are!!

My used gear sites:

Craigslist
eBay
www.Thegearpage.net used gear emporium
www.musicgoround.com
www.guitarcenter.com (used gear)

and my local shops that probably won't help you!
www.twintown.com
www.williesguitars.com

What are yours?

WIP

2008-10-10T08:44:00.000-07:00

Ever since I got my Musicom EFX I've known I needed to build as new pedal board to fit it. I was going to wait for the TIM pedal to come so I could fit everything together, but my old pedal board started acting up. I accidentally used some low heat solder that came with one of my solder guns. Apparently that solder melts at 118°F so it melted in my trunk of my car on a hot summer day. I touched up the solder but ever since then things have been bonky. One night at practice (thankfully not a gig) my board just stopped making noise or would stutter like a hard term was on. I checked the cables and it still didn't work. Finally I gave the pedal board a solid kick and suddenly it worked again. That was the end of the line. Gear shouldn't need to be kicked to work correctly. So that night I ripped the board apart and threw away the cables. Since then I've been bringing a grocery bag full of the pedals I need to each gig. That little mishap sped up my decision to build a new board, so last week I started working on it.

I got a great deal on a road case that was accidentally made the wrong size. At a minimum I needed 13"x24.5" and this case has internal dimensions of 14x28. Close enough and at 50% the cost of a new case, I decided to go with it. I figured I'd put 1x4s on each side of the board to take up some room and leave 1/2 an inch on each side for wiggle room. That left 13.5"x26" of board space which is pretty much perfect. My old board was flat with the PP2 and cables on top but this one I decided to make a wedge in the style of Pumaboards or Trailer Trash so I can put power below and run cables underneath.

So far I have the board built and sanded. I still need to tolex the sides (marshall green to match my cab) and put black plexi over the top. It kind of looks like crap at the moment, but it will look much better with tolex and plexi!! The top board especially look bad because I decided to reuse my old pedal board - cut and velcro removed. I could have gotten a new sheet of plywood but I like the idea of recycling and using the only piece of MDF I've even put my pedals on over the years :) As a side note, 3M velcro will never fall off. I had to yank it up with a pliers and it ripped the paint right off the board.

Here's the board as a work in progress. Hopefully by next weekend it will be done and ready for wiring!

Max Hsu

2008-10-03T09:03:00.000-07:00

I have a confession, I feel like I suck at guitar right now. Lessons have been great and I'm learning a lot, but the biggest change has been that I realize how little I know about guitar. I had kind of assumed I knew around 80% of everything there is to know about guitar and that last 20% has hazy and stuff I could get by without. Well, since lessons started I've realized I know more like 20%... at least it feels that way. I had also gotten used to being able to play basically anything I tried to play, but now I'm running into limits with speed and things like sweep picking that are really slow going. I also ran into my own junk, like letting guitar define me. All those things kind of culminated last week and I decided to not to play for a week or so. It was good to just let it be. When I decided to play again it was good to just play for fun. My drummer housemate and I jammed for a couple hours. I didn't worry about playing wrong notes or thinking through the theory of what I was playing, I just jammed. Making music is fun. End of story. If I get to the point where I'm playing or practicing for some other reason I need to stop and reevaluate. That's not to say practicing will always be fun, but my goad of practicing should be to allow myself to have fun making music as a result. Not so people will be impressed with me or for bragging rights or whatever.

So why is this post titled Max Hsu? He's a producer, the keyboardist for Superchic[k], a song writer, and darn good photographer. He also writes a blog I've been reading for a few years. He really believes in chasing your dreams and working at it. His writings have been a major source of musical inspiration and I'm not sure where I'd be at without them. I decided to read through some of his old posts today for some more inspiration and I decided they're worth sharing. Here are some quotes and links to blogs you should really read!

If talent is an issue, than get someone to help you or teach you. Ask around. I am one of the least talented musicians in the biz, but I make up for it with effort. Remember, success requires 2 of the following 3 things, talent, passion or discipline. I believe I got here on passion and discipline. You can too. It might be hard getting started, but that only makes the story better and you will discover what courage and character you have.

Life is Uphill - On working at it (anything) even though it's hard.
Starting Badly - On writing songs
Good is the enemy of great. Planning is the enemy of doing. Palpatine is the enemy of Yoda. - On getting stuck in the planning stage of chasing your dream
Just Showing up - 90% of being successful is just showing up.

Check out the rest of his blog, it's all good stuff! http://homepage.mac.com/maxwax11/iblog/ or use the link on my blog roll, it's been there since the start!

Picks

2008-09-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

I just made a gigantic change in pick styles. I went from:

Dunlop Tortex .5o mm (the red super light ones)

To Dunlop Jazz IIIs

The pictures don't show the size change but the jazz IIIs are about half the size of the Tortex and at 1.38mm almost 3x as thick! Why the change? I'm still doing these speed drills with my teacher and my right hand was noticeably keeping me from going faster. My teacher gave me a disclaimer: "I'll never tell you a piece of gear will make you a better player.... except these picks." and he handed me one. It's not a magic pick that makes you play faster, but offers a very fast release and great control. In other words, it doesn't slow you down or get in your way like other picks can. It was definitely weird at first, kind of feels like you're playing with a rock but I noticed better control right away.

It took about a week to get used to, and it messed up my playing at the time, like one step backwards to go two steps forward. I wouldn't recommend trying them right before a gig. It makes my Tortex feel like a playing card in comparison. I thought I would go between the two picks based on the song but there's really no way, they're so different. Now that I've gotten used to the Jazz IIIs I find I can do all styles with them - not just single note picking like I originally though. Strumming's fine and the pick doesn't fly out of my hand like I thought it might!

I really hadn't thought about picks or even tried a new one in 4-5 years. If you like yours, stick with it! If you notice you're lacking control in your right hand give the Jazz IIIs a try!

Out of curiosity, what picks do you use??

Those little knobs on the guitar

2008-09-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

Every guitar has those knobs down there, but do you ever use them? A month ago I would have said no, but a lots changed since then. I used to always set my volume at 10 and the tone knobs wherever they sounded good, then leave em' and forget about em'. Sometimes I played with the volume to see why the knob is there, but it always sounded bad at anything lower than 10.

Then earlier this summer I watched a video of a good guitarist (I forget his name) and he was always tinkering with the volume. It made his playing really dynamic and he could basically dial in the amount of gain he used based on the volume. It got me thinking so I started asking good guitar players I know how much they use their volumes. Some said, "not at all," but the majority said ,"lots." I asked more questions and played with the knobs myself and here's what I learned:

1) The reason people use the volume knob is to adjust how much signal the overdive pedals or amp is getting. The stronger (more volume) the signal the more overdriven it will get. The opposite is true for weaker signals. If you roll the volume knob way down you can basically get a clean sound even with OD's turned on.

2) The reason it never sounded good below "10" was because I had set up my amp to sound best with my guitar at "10" so I had no where to go but down. If you set your volume to 7ish and set the gain/volume on your amp and pedal there you have more options. You can roll your volume up for a volume boost and a more OD for solos or parts you want to stand out, or roll the volume down for less OD.

3) There are a lot more sound pallets when you use the volume. I basically had different set levels of OD on my pedals - clean, low OD, hi gain, and boost. With the volume knob and pedals working together I can get every range in between. I always noticed a problem with low OD before, for single note stuff I wanted more OD but when I switched to strumming chords it was too much. The answer is to roll the volume up for single notes and down for chords.

4) The volume knob doesn't make a huge difference in total output volume from the amp. I was worried that turning the volume down would make the amp way quieter but that's not the case. It still gets louder and softer but not as much as you'd think.

5) Once you get used to it, you stop thinking about it. This hasn't happened to me yet, but people I talked to said changing the volume is second nature now. They're always listening to their tone and making small adjustments based on what they want it to sound like.

6) More people play with the volume than tone, but that doesn't mean the tone knob isn't important. It won't change the amount of OD but you can use the tone knobs to change the overall tone of your guitar. Ideally you would set your tone knobs at 10 and adjust the amp so it sounds as bright as you'd ever want it to sound, then roll the tone knobs back until they sound nice. Now if you want to really cut through you can turn the tone knobs higher and set them back when you don't. You can also lower the tone if you're playing something really mellow.

Hope that's helpful!

Good resource for how to play Hillsong tunes

2008-09-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

Sorry to put two posts in a row with just a link, but I came across these again today and decided I should share. Go to youtube and search Hillsong Guitar Workshop. It's not the Hillsong United guys but Nigle from the "regular" hillsong goes through some of their songs and teaches the guitar parts. Hillsong does some of the United songs now so you can learn some of the united songs from the videos too. They're pretty cool. Give em a watch.

Some great tone tips

2008-09-11T14:12:00.000-07:00

Gibson has been doing a series of posts about guitar tone. They're done now and compiled a list of the tone tips they ran. Check this out:

25 Secret Ways to Get the Guitar Tone of Your Dream
(be sure to click on the title for a full article on each piece - that wasn't super obvious at first)

They cover everything from the wood of the guitar to the speakers in the cabinet. They have super solid advice too. Lots of stuff I'd heard and even stuff that was news to me and make we want to go home and check it out!

Most of your tone is in your hands but if you're equipment isn't working right or isn't set up to help you out, the tone will be lost. Enjoy.

New geeeetar

2008-09-09T11:19:00.000-07:00

I'm the proud new owner of a 2001 G&L ASAT Bluesboy. G&L is a cool company started by Leo Fender (of Fender) after he sold Fender to CBS and after he worked with Music Man. Leo claimed G&L were the best instruments he ever made. They make good stuff. The model I got is essentially a high end Tele but instead of two single coils, has a seth lover humbucker in the bridge. I'm blown away by the range of sounds it can make! The tone knob has a lot of usable sounds for each pickup combination and each pickup sounds good. It can go from creamy blues to twang with the flip of a switch and the roll of the tone knob.

Am I getting rid of my blue ES-137? No. I've always been a gibson guy, and while I LOVE the sound of a gibson, they really only get one tone. Don't get me wrong, I love that tone, but I want some extra versatility. Right now I'm using two guitars - the ES-137 and a Gibson Les Paul (the brown one in the picture at the top of this site). They sound really similar so instead of having two guitars that sound similar I figured I'd replace the Les Paul and have two different sounding guitars. Also I got spoiled by the nice neck of the ES-137. The Les Paul is mostly rough mahogany with a light satin finish. Compared to the ES-137 it fees like I chopped down a tree and put some strings on it. The G&L has a super smooth glossed neck and nicely rounded frets. It's buttery!!

Why this model? I wanted the fender sound but I personally think strats are too thin sounding for what I play. I tried every model of Fender Tele and G&L ASAT and this was my favorite. I liked the necks on G&Ls better than Fenders too, they're thinner and fit my hand better.

I guess I'll find out in a few weeks how much I really love it. So far so good. The only problem I ran into is the metal box around the bridge. I usually rest my right hand on the strings I'm not playing when I do lead stuff and it felt weird rubbing on the metal. I'm sure my hand will find it's place after a while though.

Those chords that "float over the top" of the music

2008-09-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

I mentioned these chords or intervals in yesterdays post and it got brought up again in the comments, so here's a post devoted to them! I don't really like that worship is a genre of music but I'm going to pass over that discussion today because for better or for worse, these chords are really iconic in worship music. Sometimes if feels like cheating or copping out because they're so over done, but they really do make a nice atmospheric sound. I 100% expect to hear these chords with a nice dotted eighth note delay at the gates of heaven.

I have a feeling everyone has their own style and variation on these, so I'll list mine and I'd love to get other people's interpretations in the comments section. All my examples are in the key of G and will pretty much work over any chord progression in G. I'm not putting any rhythms down, just the changes. Generally I would play each chord for one measure or whatever works with the chord changes of the song.

#1)
e--10-10-10-10-
b--7--8--10-8--
g--7--7--7--7--

#2)
e--7--8--10-8--
b--8--8--8--8--
g--7--7--7--7--

#3)
e--15--15--15--15--
b--12--13--15--13--
g--12--12--12--12--

#4)
e--15--14--12--14--
b--15--15--15--15--

There you have it! The basic shapes of ambient worship guitar. The Mary had a Little Lamb of worship music. What shapes do you use?

some useful chords for worship

2008-09-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for some new chord voicings lately. There are certain songs that I want to help drive the chorus by using chords (as opposed to lead lines or U2 style intervals in the higher register). Power chords aren't the right thing, open chords often overlap with the acoustic player, and standard barre chords based on the E and A form (355433 or x35553) can sound muddy in the low end and all around bland because they've been played so much. I was looking for some chords that would sound interesting, were low enough that they can add some punch (but aren't so low that they're mud), and won't make me jump all over the neck to play them. I played at two churches this weekend so I had lots of songs to experiment on, here's what I came up with:

(click to enlarge)

If you haven't looked at many chord charts, that will need some explanation: The row lists the number of the scale (C, D, E, F, G would be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) in roman numerals so they can be upper and lower-case. Upper means they're major, lower means they're minor. I put a chord name in parenthesis so help. The (5) means that's the fifth fret and the dots are where you put your fingers. Below the chords I wrote what interval of the chord each finger is playing. I didn't differentiate between normal 3 and flat 3 because I figured you'd know minor chords have flat 3's; if that's news to you or you have no idea what I'm talking about, just ignore those numbers all together :) Also, I didn't make up a chord for diminished, in this case it would be F# dim because honestly I've never seen a diminished chord in worship. The 7th chord always becomes a five chord inverted (D/F# in G, B/D# in E, etc)

I found these chords worked great when you want something in the middle register to add some drive. They might sound a little funky if you play them on your own because they don't always start on the root note. Trust me though, when you have a bass playing the root notes they make more sense. These chords work best in the keys of G, A, and B. F and E might be getting low and C and D might be getting high. For A just slide these up two frets and for B slide up four. Try using these on the chorus of Might to Save or Marvelous Light!

Big day for gear!

2008-08-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

I ordered the OCD from proguitarshop.com since their videos have been so helpful in checking out new gear - I felt like I should repay them with some business. It came in the mail today but I haven't had a chance to get home yet. Can't wait!

If you're keeping up with the blog you'd know I've also been waiting to get an eventide timefactor but wanted to wait till it was on sale somewhere. After 5 weeks of paciently waiting, Musicians Friend announced a 15% sale that included the time factor. I jumped around for a minute, then ordered it!

Once I get a call from Paul saying the TIM is done I'll be set on all the stuff I've been waiting for since May. According to Paul's predictions, my TIM should be done in September... getting closer.

The Game

2008-08-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

I'm learning a lot of cool things in my lessons so I thought I'd share a good one that everyone can benefit from - The Game. It's a speed game where you set your metronome (you have one, right?) at 80 bpm and play the major scale - two octaves up and down - at eighth notes, ie two notes per beat. That should be pretty easy to do. Then bump the metronome up 4-5 bpm and do it again. Keep speeding up until you can't keep up. Play a couple times at your fastest speed, then stop. Wait a couple hours or till the next day and start at 80 again.

I've never worked on speed before, I've never really seen the point. I have no ambition to shred or play speed metal and I've always been able to play fast enough for any song I've tackled. Good news though, between my teachers explanation and me seeing the actual results, I've come to realize this game isn't about speed - it's about technique. The reason you get to a certain bmp and can't play faster is because you're left hand is in an inefficient position, you're picking isn't perfect, or you're left hand/right hand coordination is off. The more you play the game the more your hands will naturally figure out what they need to do. I've always known I keep my fingers too far off the strings when I play scales and I've noticed I subconsciously changed my wrist position and keep my fingers closer now. Pretty cool! You're also guaranteed to see the results of faster bpms which is a little more tangible than other things we practice.

As of yesterday I'm up to 212 bpm. My goal is 232! You'll be surprised how fast you see results. Just keep it up at least once a day.

EQing an amp

2008-08-18T09:35:00.000-07:00

I've learned a bit about EQing (setting up the bass, mid and treble) an amp over the years. I've made some pretty big mistakes and learned some good tricks that I'd like to share:

Mistake #1: EQing the amp so it sounds good if I'm the only one playing.
The goal with EQing an amp is to make it sound good through a sound system in the context of a full band playing. When you're setting up your amp it's tempting to make it sound great as an individual instrument. The result will be a warm sound with a lot of bass that will sound great when you practice, but won't cut through the mix when a band is playing. This goes back to knowing your roll in the band - it's the bassist job to lay down the low end, not yours. If you're both adding bass things will get muddy fast. I don't like the tone of my tube screamer when I play by myself, but when the band is going strong it cuts right through and does it's job perfectly. I had kind of known this, but it got hammered back into my head a few weeks ago when I was EQing my amp for the new scumback speakers. I had my housemate, who's a great live sound engineer and also a bassist, give me a second pair of ears. He gave my amp less bass than I would have but I realized he was setting it for what he wants to hear coming out of a sound system so he can mix it with the rest of the band, not setting it so it sounds great on it's own. Brilliant.

Mistake #2: Not listening to what's really coming out of the speaker.
I used to do this too. I'd be standing with my head 4 feet above my amp and think to myself, "I don't hear enough highs," so I'd bend over and boost the treble. The problem with this is that guitar speakers shoot strait out like a laser. This illustrates the problem:

If you're listening from outside the "sweet spot" it's going to sound different... and most importantly it's going to sound different than what the mike is picking up right in front of the amp. When EQing the amp, make sure you're listening to the sweet spot. Either bend down and listen, or tilt the amp back so it's shooting at your ear.

The important things are that you're EQing 1) for the mike and 2) to fit into the band. Happy EQing!

Whoops, haven't written in a while

2008-08-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

I realized I haven't written in a while so here are three ideas in one post:

TONE:
My Scumback speakers finally came a few weeks ago! They sound fantastic!! I like how they sound in my open back cab too. The combination of G12T-75s and my closed back 2x12 made for some muddy bass but the Scumback's in the open back are super clear. While my head is Marshall and the scumback's are voiced like vintage greenback's, I think the open back mixes in a bit of Fender or Vox character - which is a good thing, especially for the cleans. Between the scumback's and the buffer I got (have I mentioned that yet? I got a micro-buffer 2 from doob tone that added a significant amount of clarity and punch to my cable-suck) everything is much clearer.

I think this clarity surprised me. Suddenly I can hear a lot of nuances in my playing that were blurred before. Previously, I had thought those nuances were only heard on acoustic guitar. I actually had it in my head that acoustic tone was about nuances and electric tone was about other things... like interacting with effects and overdrive. I've been pretty amazed to hear the tiny details that used to be lost on my electric ringing through clearly. It's like the best of both worlds. It also forces me to play better as I can't get away with slop!

WAITING:
Still waiting on a few pedals. The TIM is scheduled to be done in September sometime. I've saved enough to get the Fulltone OCD and Eventide Time Factor but I'm waiting for a deal. Musicians friend has deals once in a while where you spend a certain amount and get some off, or guitar center will mail a 15% off coupon. I'm being patient and spending my money wisely even though I really want the stuff now!!

LEARNING:
I started taking lessons from Alex Moreno - a local guitarist who used to play in a band (secret solution - check out "june") I used to like. He's a great guitarist and I've been really impressed so far. I was relying too much on the pentatonic scale so the first thing he had me do was learn the major scale and all it's modes. If you name a key I can now play every note on the fretboard that fits the key - something I couldn't do before. Right now it's just scales but I'm assuming we're going to do something like the CAGED system to incorporate chords and really open up the neck. Even though it's just scales, it's been fun. And it has me playing everyday - I've noticed for any instrument and even voice, if I play everyday I improve much faster. If I go a few days without playing I take a small step backwards.

waiting, waiting, waiting

2008-07-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

The scumback speakers should be done any day now. I can't wait for those to get here, I'm using pretty mediocre speakers right now (G12T-75s) and I can't wait to hear what the scumback's sounds like.

Also waiting on the TIM pedal by Paul Cochrane. I ordered in in May and it should be done in Sept. I realize that's much much shorter than people who ordered a year ago had to wait, but it's killing me. Especially since I really don't like the light OD I have right now and that's what I use on 80% of worship tunes. I love the high gain on the Twin Tube Classic but the "rhythm" section isn't my favorite anymore. I'm going with a TIM (maybe a timmy) and an OCD or Box of Rock to replace the Twin Tube. I'm going to build a new pedal board so I can use the Musicom EFX (see previous post) but I don't want to build it until I get rid of the Twin Tube so I know how everything will fit. My Patience got the best of me today and I bought a used Blues Driver (non-Keely) for cheap so I can get on with my pedalboard until the TIM arrives. I'm not sure if the BD-2 will do any better than my TTC but it's at least the right size and will let me get the OCD or BoR so start playing with them. Oh gear, oh gear.

No more tap dancing!

2008-07-19T15:20:00.001-07:00

I love stepping on pedals as much as the next guy, but lately it's been bugging me more. I especially notice it on the complicated songs... like Hosanna by HSU. I have delay and light OD on the second chorus but for the solo I switch to analog delay with tube screamer. I have the foresight to tap the tempo into the analog delay at an early break, but I still have to: turn off the DL4, turn on the Memory Lane, turn off the light OD, turn on the TS. I can do it quick but it still means I don't play for about 2 beats and it's easy to get off tempo while frantically stepping. After the solo I reverse the process. I'm always far less worried about playing the songs right as I am about getting the right pedal combinations. The solution:

Musicom Labs EFX

http://www.musicomlab.co.kr/efxmkii.htm

I actually got the original, not the MKII, used so it's a little different and used - so much cheaper. What it will do is, let me program up to 128 preset combinations of 8 effects loops. For songs like hosanna it will be bank 1 for the second chorus and bank 2 for the solo. One button. It also acts as a midi controller and since I'm in the process of getting an Eventide Time Factor (which can be midi controlled!) I can set the EFX presets to change the TF presets. A lot of the places I play use a click - either for reason or just because - so I'll be able to set tempos for the TF presets before hand and never need to tap it! Right now I'm tapping the DL4 because it doesn't have enough presets and sometimes it's majorly stressful on quick transitions to change what pedals are on and make sure I'm taping beats 3 & 4 as the drummer clicks us in. The EFX will be great for getting rid of noise and cable suck (loops and two buffers) but I'm most excited to just think less about pedals and more about the music.

In other news, I found a guitar teacher to try! He used to play in a band I liked and he's a sick player. I really respect his playing and hope to learn a lot. First lesson is next week, more on that later.

What a weekend

2008-07-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

I had a long weekend of playing guitar - 4 services between 2 churches and 10 songs to learn (all in keys I'd never played them in and a few songs I had never heard). It was super fun playing at both churches and I learned a lot. Here's what I'm left pondering:

1) The first church had horns (trumpet, trombone and sax) playing with us. I think someone told me that but I totally forgot. Needless to say, horns and lead guitar play basically the same parts and since they had arranged music and written it out, I was the one who had to make room. There was an acoustic and piano playing too, so I found my place in playing rhythm stuff half way up the neck and doing some arpeggiated stuff.

2) The second church had a tiny team, just drums, bass, me, and the leader on acoustic. Bass sang BVG so it was just the four of us. This church tends to rock out and usually has smaller teams but there's almost always keys and I notice when they're gone. It leaves that hole between the acoustic and the higher electric parts. The sustaining chords and vibrato of a B3 patch really fill in, so I made it a point to not leave that gap open. I played with more delay than usual to fill in the pad sound and played chords in a couple places I wouldn't have normally. We played "everything" by Tim Hughes and it was the song I was most worried about sounding empty. I put my DL4 on quarter-note lo res delays and my memory lane (analog) on eighth-notes in series so everything I played delayed on quarters but then those delays delayed on eighths as well. I played a simple eighth-note line and it ended up sounding huge. At one point I got to max the repeats on the DL4 and make a cool oscillation behind a quiet part of the song... I love doing that! I talked to my musically inclined housemate later and he said the music didn't have that usual "empty" spot with the keys missing. Mission accomplished!

3) I had to tackle some musical insecurities. I have this weird perfectionism with playing in front of people. Even if I just have friends over, I don't like playing (performing) anything I haven't practiced. I think this stems from my concert band days where mistakes were only ok when sight reading, the next rehearsal you were expected to have learned it right and by concert time it should be basically memorized and you should be concentrating on the nuances of dynamics and feel, not playing the right notes. When I play electric now, I basically have my parts memorized so I can concentrate on other things. During run-through (first and last time we'd play it before the first service) of "how great is our God" the worship leader says, "Mike, solo." Ok. I know how to solo, I know my scales, I've improves solos with my cover band that were several minutes long, but for some reason my musical perfectionism/insecurities piped up here. The solo was 16 bars - two times through the chorus - which is actually really long for that song. I think soloing in blues at a bar is different than soloing in the middle of a worship song, especially for how long this one was. I felt pressure to not just fill the time with notes but actually take the solo somewhere musically. I really, REALLY, wished I had known about it before right then so I could have come up with something good. I talked to the worship leader before the service and asked if I could cut it in half because I felt it would be easier to come up with something for 8 bars and I explained how I have my weird perfectionism. She basically said no. Haha. She and the bassist said they knew I could do it well and I just needed to do it. I hate trusting my creativity. It's never not come through for me, but it seems like voodoo and I wish I had more control of it. As the solo was approaching I made it a point to stay relaxed or I knew I'd screw it up. I had no plan until about 2 bars before when it hit me to play with the theme from the opening lead line - the one that's behind the first verse and chorus. We were in G so I did some variations on that theme down on the 3rd-7th frets for 8 bars, then slid up to the Em form on the 12th fret and built from there for 8 bars. I was pretty happy with how it turned out. In retrospect if I had spent time coming up with something at home I probably would have landed on the same thing. I need to just trust my creativity in the moment.

4) I think I need to start taking lessons again. I took guitar lessons when I was a kid for a couple years but since then I've learned on my own or from playing with friends and people who are better than me. A lot of my learning has been from necessity, as in I need to learn something for a song I'm playing. That's all fine and dandy but I know there's a lot to guitar that I haven't begun to explore. I think there's a mentality to lessons that they're just for beginners. When I was in concert bands from 5th grade to half way through college I took lessons the entire time. School required them but I also took private lessons most of that time and there was never a time when I was "too good" for lessons, even when I was quite accomplished. I'm not sure why I'm not currently taking guitar lessons. Probably because my parents aren't paying for them!! I think it's time to start again.

Keeping the hum down

2008-06-25T08:18:00.000-07:00

My ultimate goal for "noise" is for my amp to sound the same whether anything is plugged into it or not. Unfortunately my amp has a hum of it's own, it's 36 years old, it's allowed to. There's nothing I can do about that, but I obsess about keeping my pedalboard silent.

I noticed I was getting more noise than usual. I tested by plugging my pedalboard into my amp and turning everything on. Once the buzz is going I pull the cable out of my amp's input to see if the hum goes away. Sure enough it did. Next I unplugged one cable at a time until the hum went away. I narrowed it down to my tube screamer but did some bypassing of cables to make sure that was the case. In the end I plugged everything back in and the hum was gone! A cable must have just been sitting wrong or something. Back to silence. Hmmmmm.

Here are some tips for keeping hum down:

Problem #1 - bad cables
It's important to have a good connection inside each cable. I openly hate George L cables (I used to use them so I can judge) or other solderless cables that reply on pressure or gravity to keep things in place. I highly, highly recommend soldering your own cables. It sounds intimidating but I promise it's worth it. I was able to buy a soldering gun, solder, top of the line cable, and connectors for less than the price of a George L kit. 15 minutes of learning to solder on youtube and I was ready. I noticed a HUGE difference in sound quality and noise reduction when I moved from a cheap hodge-podge of cable.

Problem #2 - ground loops
Ground loops are tricky thing to understand but for a guitar rig, the two things you want to avoid are 1) instrument cables running parallel to power cables (AC or DC) and 2) equipment plugged into two different power circuits. Power cables create an electronic field around them and if an instrument cable is running parallel it will pick that up and make a 60 Hz hum. Always cross power and instrument cables at 90 degree intersections. Set up your pedal board this way and also check when you're playing live that your cables from guitar to board and board to amp aren't crossing any extension cords or anything. Shielded cables will help avoid this problem as well. It's also good practice to plug your pedalboard and amp into the same outlet. I use a power conditioner in my rack and plug everything into that. I also use a Voodoo labs Pedal Power 2 for all my pedals. Both of those keep things regulated and isolate ground loops. If you're having a problem with ground loops that you just can't fix get a ground lift for your cable right before the amp.

Problem #3 - Too many buffers
I think the true bypass vs. buffered pedals is an entirely different post but I can tell you if you have too many buffered pedals in a row you'll get noise. If this is the case you'll want to mod some of them to be true bypass or get a multi-effects loop pedal like the stuff Loooper makes.

Hopefully this helps! There's nothing more embarrassing than the sound guy having to tell you your amp is too noisy. It's also bad for the sound of playing live or recorded when everyone hears your signal being unmutted at the sound board... song starts, everything's quiet, then huuuuuuuuum. Silence is golden.

Video Review of Diamond Memory Lane

2008-06-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

Here's my video/audio review of the Memory Lane analog delay pedal. Also check out my written review and Diamond Pedal's website.

Part 1:
NOTE: Sorry about the clipping, it's coming from youtube, I'm working on it....

...and because I babbled too much in part 1, part 2:

Tone frustration...

2008-06-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

I haven't been happy with the way my rig has been sounding lately. I narrowed it down to the attenuator and speakers. I knew there was a ton of harsh highs but I wasn't sure where it was coming from. Turns out a lot of it was coming from the attenuator, but the AlNiCo blues have such a bright top end, they were very clearly accenting to harshness coming from the attenuator. I decided I need to ditch the attenuator, or at lease use it less - right now it's attenuating about 7 db which is a fair amount. That means the Blues have to go since they only handle 30W and my head is 100W (that's why I was using the attenuator). I know blues are great speakers, they just don't work for my rig. I thought about getting AlNiCo Golds (higher power blues) but after talking to people who know way more about speakers, I decided against it.

The reoccurring recommendation was the Celestion Heritage G12-65. It's basically a Greenback but handles 65W instead of 25W. Greenback's are classic british marshall sound and the guy who sold me my 72' Marshall Superbass has been trying to get me to buy the half stack he used with the head - an early 70s 4x12 with greenback's. He says it's the perfect pair for the head, and I believe him, but there's no way I'm lugging a 4x12 everywhere I go. In theory the G12-65 would let me get a similar sound from my 2x12.

Which checking out speakers and getting recommendations, I came across a company called Scumback speakers. Jim, the owner, is obsessed - in a good way - with vintage celestion speakers. He spent something like 40k on a collection of vintage pre rola celestions, then had them tested to find the "best of the best" perfect speakers. Once he found them he had Ted Weber (of weber speakers) dissect them and recreate them as perfectly as possible. The process sounds quite cool and in the end you get a new speaker that sounds like an amazing vintage celestion - it even comes factory broken in to sound 20 years old! I talked with Jim and for my sound, he recommended one H75-LHDC and one M75-LHDC for my 2x12. These should sound like vintage Celestion G12-65's... just like I wanted! Only problem, it's going to take 4-5 weeks to build. Looks like I'm waiting.

This is a good lesson in trust and patience. If I hadn't talked to anyone I would have ordered 2 Golds. I hadn't even considered the G12-65s, but then again I don't know a lot about speakers. Lots of people who know what they're talking about tell me the G12-65 (0r scumback equivalent) are what I want. I hope they're right! I guess I know in mid July.

Not hiding behind effects

2008-05-23T07:40:00.001-07:00

When I was 11 I got my first electric guitar, 15W Crate practice amp, and Boss OD-2r overdrive pedal. When I wasn't practicing what I was supposed to be working on I would rock out by kicking the OD-2r into Turbo mode, crank the gain, and ALSO turn the distortion on the amp up to 10. It was great, nothing sounded bad because it all sounded the same... like distortion. But then again nothing sounded good because it was all indistinguishable. At the time, though, I thought it sounded great! You couldn't tell if I was shredding or just hitting random notes as fast as I could. I was hiding behind the effect.

I've been thinking about this lately and wondering if I still do it to an extent. Last weekend I was playing "You never let go" by Matt Redman and on the chorus I play:

e--7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-
b--4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-7-7-5-5: repeat
g--4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-

Or some sort of variation on that. Changing from 477 to 457 to 447 is a little awkward for me, I use my pinky to play the b and e string on the 7th fret then switch back to using my middle finger to play the b string and my pinky to play the e string. Switching between the two positions means I can't leave the e string ringing and the notes get chopped a little. My first reaction was to put an eighth note delay over the top so the delayed notes will hit on top of the notes I'm playing and hide my rusty switches. Why is that my first thought? I use this form a lot and it would be much more worth-while to spend an hour practicing the switch until it was clean than rely on effects to fix it.

I have a sneaking suspicion that worship guitarists use delay as a masking tool more than we should. Don't get me wrong, I love delay and when used right, will add a thick texture to our sound. I do, however, think it's temping to let delay wash out our playing and like my early distortion, cause everything to sound the same... like delay.

I guess in practice, we should never NEED an effect. Anything we play should sound good played through a clean, effectless, amp. From there we can add effects to change the atmosphere and tone, but effects should never be used to hide bad playing.

The "don't leave home without em's"

2008-05-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

I've shown up to enough gigs where I plugged in and no noise came out of my cab, there was no power near by, I broke a string, or I dropped a pick. Now I keep a check list of "emergency" items that I take with to every gig. They are:

-Extra 20' instrument cable - incase one of mine doesn't work or I need to bypass a pedal that's not being happy
-Extra FULL set of strings - if you bring a pack that's missing a d-string, your d-string will break. That's how it works.
-20' Extention cord - I end up needing it 90% of the time.
-Gaffing tape - for whatever needs taping
-Extra pick that sets on my amp or music stand
-Screw driver - my strap locks used to come loose until I gorilla glued them in. I've also used it to change the string intonation. Never know when somethings coming unscrewed.

What emergency stuff do you take with to every gig?

A shout out to the local guys

2008-05-15T08:28:00.001-07:00

One of the things I've realized as I get more into amps and effects is that there are some pretty amazing boutique dealers out there. There was a time when I looked for effects by going to guitar center and seeing which boss pedal I liked best, now I find myself listening to sound samples from small companies from all over. I'm not into buying boutique for the sake of "sticking it to the man." I'll buy from big company when they make the best amp or pedal but I've been surprised to find that often boutiques make a BETTER effect or the same quality for a cheaper price. When that's the case, I go boutique. I've also come to realize that there are some amazing boutiques right in the minneapolis area. Here's my shout out to the locals, check em' out if you get a chance:

Savage Audio - About 5 mi. from my house there's an indoor go-kart track. On the back side of the building there's a shop that builds amps and repairs vintage gear. I take my amp there to get the tubes biased. Oh, and a few musicians have used their amps - Beck, Tom Waits, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Sheryl Crow, Counting Crows, R.E.M., and Wilco to name a few.

Z.Vex - I first saw one of their pedals at a Music-Go-Round (second hand music gear), it was the Wah probe and it looked crazy. They guy at the stored explained it to me and it's a really cool idea. There's a charged metal plate and the closer your foot gets to it, the higher the envelope filter. Check out the video on their site, the thing is nuts! And they hand paint their effects! In the previous post I listed Micheal Guy Chislett's gear, he has their Fuzz Probe and Super Hard On. Crazy that a guy in Australia uses gear from Minneapolis.

Van Amps - Who makes the absolute best analog spring reverb pedal? There's some debate, but the usual winner is either Fender or Minneapolis' own Van Amps Reverbamate. I recently got the Van Amps Sole-Mate (the single output version of the Reverbamate) and it sound fantastic!!

Minneapolis also has a slue of great vintage guitar/amps/effects shops and I can't forget to mention Slammhammer Cases, the road case builder that made my custom head case. They even made room for my power cable that doesn't unplug because it was converted from British to US power. Thanks guys!

Profile of a guitarist: Michael Guy Chislett

2008-05-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a guitar role model of mine: Michael Guy Chislett. He's the lead guitarist for Hillsong United and also plays with a "The Academy Is..." which will be playing on the Warped Tour this summer. He has great analog tone and plays really well. Here's his rig:

[62' VOX AC30_PreTopBoost]

[Goodsell 33w Head]

[Not sure if these are all his, but the Gretsch White Falcon and Gretsch Black Peguin are for sure]

[Pedalboard - effects listed below]

ROW 1
Strange Gray box??
Z.Vex Super Hard-on
Cusack Fuzz Screamer
MXR Blue Box
Rocktron Hush Super C
Cusack Tap-A-Whirl
divided by 13 Joyride
Keely 4-knob Compressor

ROW 2
Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde
Boss DD-5
Boss DM-2 (covered in stickers with a dice for the "Repeat Rate" knob
Ibanez TS-808 (original) tube screamer
Boss TU-2 Tuner
Z.Vex Fuzz Probe - super cool, the closer your foot gets, the more fuzz it makes
Ernie Ball Volume Pedal

ROW 3
Not sure what brand, but it's an effect loop contoller (update: I heard it's by "Loooper"). Each pedal is in it's own true bypass loop and it turned on and off by the switch on this controller.

MYSTERIES:
There's a little blue pill box or something above the fuzz probe??
The DD-5 has a cable plugged into the tap tempo but I can't figure out what it's connected to.
What is the gray box in the top corner? The Super Hard-on is connected to it by input AND output. It almost looks like the DD-5 and DM-2's outputs are sent to it as well.
Either the Blue Box isn't plugged into the effect loop box on the bottom.

How much pizazz can worship music handle?

2008-05-06T12:14:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of me when I was playing with Left on Farwell (thanks for the picture Jordan!). I would never look like this during worship though. In fact, when I started playing in bands (non-worship) after ONLY playing in worship bands for years, it was really awkward for me to be on stage. In worship we have the mentality that we should be invisible and non-distracting so we mostly look down at our strings and try not to move. In live music, in a non-worship settings, the goal is to captivate, visually emphasise the music, and entertain. I slowly got the hang of it until it was totally natural. At the time I was taking a break from playing on worship teams so when I came back to worship, it was awkward again. It had become natural for me to move around to visually emphasize my playing, but I felt like I should hold back.

There are a lot of elements to worship I can't wrap my mind around. One of them is this: Can stage presence benefit worship? I can mull it over by myself all day long but what I really need is a discussion with other people who play on worship teams. So if you're reading this, post a comment! Here's a starting block:

Obviously there are extreme black and whites. On one hand we could have the worship team (piano and singers) play from the back of the church, play really conservatively, leave the lights off, and only put white lyrics on a black background. There would be nothing distracting and nothing visual. On the other hand we could have a laser show where the bassist back flips off the drum riser in perfect coordination with the pyrotechnics and the electric player shreds a solo from a harness floating over the audience.

I think we lean way more toward the first. Actually, the first one would be just fine for certain aspect of worship, but I think the second is so entertainment based and visually loud that it would be hard to see God in anything.

Most churches are somewhere in between. If the point of worship was just to sing, we would only need a melody, but we add chords, and rhythms, and counter melodies. Are those distractions? We're all playing them, so we must not find it to be distracting. Instead, we find it adds to the experience. It creates emotion and helps people connect with God. The same is true with visuals. All the congregation needs is lyrics but churches put the worship team up front, an interesting background on the lyrics screen and a lighting system. It's obvious from these practices that churches feel visuals will help the congregation worship. The visuals can craft emotion just as well as music. Ever seen someone dance as worship? It's harder for us to connect with because music is a bigger part of our culture, but the Psalms tell us to dance, clap, and jump along with telling us to sing. Dance can be worship.

I guess I'm back to the original question, but this time asking, how can my movement on stage add to the worship experience? Here's where I draw from what I learn in non-worship bands - the ability to move with the song. If the song is reflective and slow, then I'll be still. That's a visual in it's self and it would be wrong to project that same visual in a fast celebratory song. I'm not going to throw my leg up on a monitor and strike a "Creed" pose, but if the song is exciting I'm going to move around with it.

I think the most important thing is to let what's happening on the inside show on the outside. If you're playing the song on guitar, you're feeling some soft of emotion (if you're not you're playing is going to sound bland). We're already making an emotion, the key is just to let it show visually too. I know I used to think there was something wrong with showing anything visually in worship. It's time to get rid of that mentality.

Agree or disagree?

External Tap Tempo for DD-20 Giga Delay

2008-05-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

One of the downsides to the Boss DD-20 is that if you want to switch between tapping a tempo and changing the preset, you have to hold down the right button for 2 seconds. Two seconds might not seem like long, but if the tempo is 120, that's four beats. The way to get around this problem is to use an external tap tempo like the Boss FS-5U. If you're looking for something like this but want to save a few bucks, have a smaller enclosure with nicer components, and support a fellow worship guitarist, check out: http://brokenheadstock.com/?p=74

Miking your cab - Part 2

2008-05-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

I spent some time yesterday auditioning some mikes to use on my cab. I've been using - and loving - the Sennheiser e906 for a while new, but with the new upgrades, I figured I'd give some other mikes a listen and see if I like something better. Here are the mikes I tried:

From left to right: The trusty Shure SM-57, Sennheiser e906, Sennheiser MD421, AKG 414.

Here's the background on how I set up the test: I recorded 4 licks with effects strait into protools via a Focusrite ISA428. When I say strait into, I mean I skipped the amp and sent the output from the last effect into the "inst in" on the focursite. Recording a guitar sounds terrible like this, but it allowed me to send what I had recorded back to my amp using a Radial Xamp to send my amp a signal it "should" be happy with. Setting it up that way let me record each mike with the exact same guitar line so there won't be any variables in how loud I played or minor differences in style. I recorded each mike 6 times, aimed strait at the speaker in the center, edge, and in between, then angled 30 degrees at the center, edge, and inbetween. When I had all the mikes recorded I listened for which position I liked best for each mike, then compared each mike (at my favorite position) to each other.

Quirks: The process went smooth, but recording dry, then reamping had it's issues. All the ohm changes ended up making a lot of noise in the signal... I guarantee my amp doesn't have all the hiss when I play normal. I also didn't give enough volume back to the amp (I was afraid of hurting it) which was safe, but made the amp sound worse because the signal was too low. I ended up not overdriving the preamp tubes or power amp tubes enough so the tone sounds more brittle and buzzy than it does when I play normal and give the input a good signal. All that aside, my tone sounds cruddier than usual but it was consistent for the test and did the trick.

The results:

Shure SM-57
WAV (8.6 MB)

Price: $99
Thoughts: This was the most mellow of the mikes I tested. The highs weren't very clear and I had to put it in the brightest part of the speaker to get it sounding clear enough. That said, it sounds as good as the rest once it's there. It's an economical way to get almost the same sound as the other mikes that cost 2-4 times more.

Sennheiser e906:
WAV (8.8 MB)

Price: $189
Thoughts: This has been my favorite for a while and after the test, still is. Where the sm57 only had one place that sounded good, the 906 had three that were a close tie. It's designed just for guitar cabs so it sounded pretty consistent no matter where I put it. One note, DON'T get the younger brother, the 609. It's cheaper but sounds terrible.

Senheiser MD421:
WAV (8.5 MB)

Price: $379
Thoughts: This is one of the best tom (drumeset) mikes there is. Some people use them as dynamic vocal mikes, (the Mars Volta for example) and I've seen them on some guitar cabs. I found it had a natural scoop (emphasised the highs and lows) which made it hard to place on the cab. It really emphasised the highs or lows depending on how close to the center I put it. I was able to get a pretty good sound from it, but not significantly better then the 906 or 57. Basically, it will work, but it's not worth the price. Keep it on the toms.

AKG 414:
WAV (8.7 MB)

Price: $999
Thoughts: I just threw this in for fun but it's not really comparable with the other three mikes. This is a large diaphragm condenser and will behave much differently. I tried it in a regular cardioid response (like the other mikes, it mostly picks up sounds strait ahead) and as a figure 8 (picks up sound from the front and the back but not the sides). I liked it better as a figure 8, it gave a really open and natural sound. The only problem is it has to sit a few feet back from the amp and will pick up ANY noise in the room. It's great for recording when you're already in a room that's meant to sound great, but if your cab is on stage or in a room just off stage, I imagine it will sound pretty bad. The noise is pretty bad on this recording, again, that's because of how I set up the recording, it's no where near that bad normally.

If I were in the studio and didn't have to worry about noise, I could use the e906 up close and the 414 a few feet back and combine the two. Here's an audio sample of what that would sound like: WAV (8.8 MB)<-- or Flac (3.3 MB)-->. You just have to be careful of phase cancellation... I'm getting a little in this mix but it's nothing terrible.

Conclusion:
I found that WHERE the mike was placed made a much bigger difference than WHICH mike I used. I found it easiest to get a good sound out of the e906 and would recommend either that or the sm57. More importantly than which mike you get or use, make sure you find time to experiment with mike placement and find what works best for your cab. Happy miking!

Miking your cab - Part 1

2008-05-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

The very last step in your signal change - that you can control - is the mike and it's placement on your cab. This last step can really change your tone and shouldn't be overlooked or left to the sound guy. No offense to sounds guys! But there's no absolute rule on where to put a mike on a cab so when they mike it they're just guessing. Each cab will sound different so even if you and I use the same mike, it won't sound the same and might sound terrible if you place it the same as I do. The only way to know where to put the mike is by trial and error.

I literally bring my own mike to every gig and set it up myself. I'm always careful not to insult the sound guy by doing it myself, but in my experience the good one's don't mind at all. If you're planning on buying a mike you should see if you can borrow a few and see how they sound on your cab first. If you're not going to buy one try to borrow a Shure SM57 (since that's what almost everyone will put on your cab if you don't bring your own) and find where it sounds best on your cab.

Ideally you'll be able to make a recording with the mike in a bunch of different positions to hear where it sounds best. If that's not possible, see if your church's sound guy will let you come to practice early and experiment with mike placement.

While there are no rules on where to place the mike, here are the general guidelines:

- Use a dynamic mike (not a condenser) because it can handle the loud volumes your speakers are putting out
- Go ahead and put the mike right up to the speaker grill, or within an inch of it. The further you put it away the more noise it's going to pick up from other instruments or echos off walls
- Aiming the mike at the center of the speaker will give you a bright (lots of treble) sound, the edge of the speaker will give you a dull (lots of bass) sound, you'll most likely want to be somewhere in the middle of those two.
- Moving the mike toward the floor will add more bass (reflecting off the floor), moving the mike higher will not add bass.
- Aiming the mike strait at the speaker will give more bass than angling it 30-45 degrees to the side. In my opinion, angling the mike also gets ride of shrill high frequencies.

Go experiment if you haven't already. Find the best placement and make sure the mike ends up in the best position each time you play!

Do it yourself pedalboard

2008-05-03T20:59:00.000-07:00

If you have three or more pedals and aren't using a pedal board, it's probably time to get one. It saves a lot of time setting up/taking down, cables will stay in better shape, and your pedals won't move around at all when you step/stomp/tap on them.

I build my own a few years ago when there weren't many pre-made pedal boards that were reasonably priced. I was just looking at musicians friend and zzounds and it looks like there are a lot more pre-made boards now days and some of them are decent prices. Using the same method I used, you should be able to build a custom sized board for around $50 and get a soft case for around $30. That's still significantly cheaper than getting a pre-made board so I think these instructions will be worthwhile. Here are the steps:

1) Lay out your pedals and the ground how you want them on your pedal board and measure the width and depth. Add 4" to the width for handles and 2" to the depth because you'll end up with power cables and patch cables that take up room. It's a good idea to leave extra room for growth if you plan on adding more pedals.

Here is my original layout. In retrospect I had the pedals way to spread out and could have made the board about half the size. The good thing is, I was able to upgrade and expand over the years and still use the same pedal board.

2) Head to a hardwood store and get the following items (price is what I paid a few years ago):
- A sheet of 1/2" MDF (medium density fiberboard) big enough to fit your pedals and the extra room. I know Home Depot will even cut the sheet to the size you need. 1/2" might seem thin but it's never been a problem and it still holding up good as new with the abuse I've given it. [$5.95]
- 8 plastic or rubber feet [$2.49]
- 2 cabinet handles [$9.98]
- 1 Pint of paint, I used black glossy [$3.76]
- Paintbrush if you don't have one [$5.47]
- 2 four foot packs of industrial strength Velcro. You might think Velcro won't hold your pedals on but believe me, the industrial strength stuff is crazy. Nothing is going anywhere. [$17.94]

3) Paint both sides with at least two coats of paint

4) Screw the rubber feet to the bottom of the board. Put them on the corners and in the middle. This will make sure your board doesn't slide around on carpet or hard floors.

5) Screw the handles on the far left and right.

6) Velcro your pedals down. Make sure you are consistent in what part you put on the pedal and what part you put on the board so you can swap pedals if you need. The standard way of doing it is to put the fuzzy side on the board but I happened to do it opposite.

Here is the final product when I first made it:

And here is how it looks currently:

Extras:
If you have a second row of pedals (like I do in the current photo) you might want to raise up the back row. I bought a piece of 3/4" MDF, painted it black, screwed it on using 1" screws, then Velcro'ed the pedals down. I made it a lot easier to step on that row.

If you want a way to carry your board around, look for a keyboard gig bag that will fit your board. I was able to get one for $30 and it's been all I've needed so far.

Memory Lane Review

2008-04-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

The Memory Lane (1) from Diamond Pedals is an all analog bucket brigade delay with tap tempo and modulation.

I've been in love with the sound of analog delays (vintage Boss DM-2, Electro Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man, Ibanez AD line) for a while now. While the sound is vintage, analog delay has been making a come back recently in my listening catalog - Hillsong United, Coldplay, Robby Seay Band, and Mutemath namely. Analog delay has a really warm sound that breaks down the more it repeats (unlike digital delay that sounds the same but softer as it repeats) and and make some beautifully ugly oscillation (repeating on itself and making noise). The line6 DL4, Echo Park, and the new Boss DD-7 have a mod of the Boss DM-2 (called analog delay in the line6 world) and the DL4 also has a mod of the EH Deluxe Memory Man (analog delay with mod in line6 speak). But a mod is a mod and I don't think they sound as good as the real thing.

The problem with the real analog delay pedals I mentioned earlier is that none of them have tap tempo. They only have a dial to chose the speed. Maybe I just lack some skill that lets you perfectly set a delay time in a live situation, but when I get 4 clicks before a song starts I don't have time to be twisting and guessing, I need to step on something! So my requirement was a true analog delay that also has tap tempo. After a long search, the only one I could find was the Memory Lane. After months of debating on whether it's worth the money (about $450 for version 1) I decided to get it and trust me when I say it's worth every dollar!

Here's what all the knobs and buttons do:

Delay: sets the delay time if you're not in tap mode
EQ: a tilt EQ - like a tone knob for the delays only that gets emphasised more with each repeat. If you twist it left the delays will get darker with each pass until it becomes a throb. If you twist right it will get brighter and brighter until it's just a click. You won't get to the extremes until at least 9 repeats I would say.
Level: Controls the number of repeats
Mod/Tap switch: controls whether the button in the bottom right taps a tempo or turns the mod on and off.
Depth: Controls the depth of modulation which is a vibrato - bending the pitch (of the delay) sharp and flat to give it the feel of a tape wabble.
Speed: Speed of the modulation
Mix: How loud the delays are compared to the original signal
Expression Pedal: which is on the right side and butted up against my DL4 so I'm obviously not using it. This is basically an effects loop so you can put other effects on the delays or hook up a volume pedal to control the level (number of delays). I may hook up a vol pedal eventually but for now I'm ok.
Stereo output: One for just delay and one for just original signal/mix of the two. If nothing is plugged into the delay only plug the other switch will be a mix. I only have one amp live so I'm using the mix but in the studio I plan to go stereo.

Pros:
-Absolutely beautiful analog delay
-Tap tempo
-Behaves as I would expect and I'm instantly able to get the sounds I want
-I can easily control oscillation and start/stop oscillation consistently
-Great craftsmanship and quality parts

Cons:
-Only 550ms (half a second) of delay. The DM-2 only has 330 and the EH Memory Man only has 550 so it's on par. I assume this is a limitation of bucket brigade delay.
-Center positive 15V power supply. It comes with a 24V power supply but to use my VooDoo Labs Pedal Power 2 I had to get a cable from voodoo that combines 2 outputs to make a 18V cable AND get a crossover cable from center negative to center positive (almost every pedal is center negative). At least the Memory Lane is internally regulated to 15V so sending it 18V works, otherwise I'd have to use their wall wart power.

Quirks:
-When I'm in tap mode I have to leave the delay knob fully left. If I have it anywhere else it makes a noise in time with what the knob is set to. This might be unique to mine but it really doesn't bother me since I always use the tap.
-Tap only works in pairs. It's like there's an on/off switch in it. This is going to be hard to explain... say you tap on, off. It works and figured out how long it was on for and sets the tempo. If the switch is already in the on position though, you tap off,on it thinks you set a tempo from whenever you hit on last (maybe 5 minutes ago) and automatically sets itself to 550ms since that's the max it can do. I just noticed this and haven't had a chance to experiment. The solution is to always tap in pairs so it never gets off, or always tap in 3's so at least two of the taps are good.
-I read that some people think it oscillated too easily. I'm not sure what they're talking about, it's been exactly as I would expect. Maybe because I actually want oscillation if I set the level high enough.

Thoughts on the Memory Lane 2: Diamond has stopped making the Memory Lane 1 and will be shipping the ML2 shortly. It comes with dotted eight delays as well as the ability to set two temps - one tap and one by knob. It also costs about $150 more from what I've seen. I like digital dotted eighths and I don't care about the extra tempo so I definitely don't want to pay for the extra features I wouldn't use. I literally scoured the earth for a shop that had the ML1 still for sale and found two. In the world. There were no used ones on ebay and about 3 on craigslist from other cities. There might be an influx of used ML1 on the market soon - which will be good for people who want the function without the price tag.

Conclusion: While there are a few quarks and oddities I'm overall thrilled with this pedal. The circuits are all top quality and the sound is simply amazing. To get this kind of sound and be able to control it with a tap is very much worth the price in my opinion. This is THE best analog delay available.

The over-haul is almost done!

2008-04-27T14:29:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a previous post I've been trading up and changing out a lot of gear lately. A lot of it depended on the attenuator (Weber Mass Lite 100) being made and shipped. It finally came and I was able to put everything together. The Diamond Pedals' Memory Lane happened to get here at the same time (grown up Christmas!) so I had lots to work on. The Memory Man didn't fit on my pedal board so I had to rip up almost every pedal to reorganize. The industrial strength Velcro you can get at home improvement stores is AMAZING! I had to cut the Velcro apart on my volume pedal and each time I pulled the bottom piece of Velcro off the board it ripped the paint up with it. So I got to repaint almost everything too...

Here's a picture of my newly created rack (sorry for the blurry and poorly lit pics. I was packing everything up when I hastily decided to snap some pictures):

The new Weber Mass attenuator is in the bottom right. I also made custom length Mogami cables and some connectors on the back so I can just plug everything in on the bottom instead of fishing around for inputs inside the rack.

Here's the pedal board with the memory Lane on it (bottom left). I also added the Fender foot switch right above it to work as an expression pedal for the Line6 DL4. I was able to get ride of the Electro Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb (which I never liked) and the Boss EQ pedal since I have EQ and reverb in the rack now.

I can also finally use the 2x12 I've had sitting unused with two Celestian AlNiCo Blues. The cab only handles 30 watts and my head is 100. The attenuator lowers the watts to a usable level. The math works out that for every 3db of attenuation the wattage is cut in half. -6 db of attenuator makes my amp 25W and ready for the cab!

Multiple delays in their own effects loop

2008-04-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

I haven't put together a "my gear" area yet, partially because I'm in the middle of a pretty big overhaul. I sold a lot of gear and bought some new and used stuff. Everything is ready to go except some custom cables I still need to solder and the dilemma of the night: how to make two delays sound good together.

I've had my DL4 for a while now and I really like the rhythm delays and lo-res but I've never been happy with the analog mods. Maybe because the ones I like are just digital delays and easier to copy with a digital pedal. I went on a quest for the perfect analog delay and found it in the Memory Lane by Diamond Pedals. After a 6 month debate over whether or not to get it, I finally did. I have no remorse as it sounds absolutely beautiful but I'll save the review for later.

Now that I have two delays I want to come up with a way to make creative use from them. I don't really want to put one after the other (so the second delays of the first's delays) so I looked at getting an effects loop pedal. The first one I got was the Radial ToneBone EFX. I thought I could use it to get parallel effects loops, meaning each loop would be independent of each other and let me use two delays that wouldn't affect each other. Their marketing images make it look like they're parallel but once I hooked it up I found out it's series... just like hooking one delay up after the other. Boooo. I checked the manual and sure enough, it only works in series.

I sent the EFX back and tried a Boss LS-2 line selector. I wish I would have tried this one in the first place. The only reason I didn't was because I was out of 9V adaptors on my Pedal Power (EFX didn't need power) but I didn't realize the LS-2 has a 9V out so it can power another pedal. perfect. The LS-2 is super functional, I can run it so it only plays the DL4 or Memory Lane, so it runs them in series, or so it runs them in parallel. In theory at least. I ran into all sorts of problems where the tone would change massively if one effect was on or off, volume would cut out, and things were just generally screwy. I don't think it's the LS-2's fault. I think it was a weird combination of using the delays "delay only" outputs and their mix outputs. It's like things freaked out because the original signal was or was not sent back into the loop. I eventually decided it wasn't worth $80 to have a headache.

After all that, I concluded that using two delays in parallel isn't that useful. I was doing dotted eighths in one delay and quarter-notes in the other and it sounded really jumbled. The most practical use for two delays I found was using one long delay and a second short delay and running them in series (long first, short delaying off the long delays). For now I'm just going to run the output of the DL4 into the input of the Memory Lane, then carry on as normal.

Has anyone else had experience with two delays and making useful sounds from it? Let me know!

Getting the most out of your Line6 DL-4

2008-04-25T15:20:00.000-07:00

The Line6 DL-4 Delay Modeler is a great tool for delay. It doesn't take long to figure out the basics of it but there are a couple tricks and tips I've picked up along the way that make this pedal way more powerful.

1) The pesky dotted eight notes - Dotted eights sound so sweet but for some reason Line6 skipped over them in favor of triplet eight notes. On their support site they say you should use the Stereo Delays to get "The Edge" dotted eighth sound. I don't know if you've had luck with this but I can't get stereo delay to sound like anything musical or Edge-like. I'm pretty sure you can't tap a tempo into stereo delay since there are two delay times and I've never had it line up as dotted eights. If you know how to set this up let me know!! When I wanted dotted eights, which is a lot actually, I set mod to Rhythm Delay and set the rhythm to sixteenth notes. For the tempo I tap on beats 1 & 4 of the song and there you go, dotted eights. This works because dotted eights are the same 3 sixteenth notes so tapping on 1 & 4 (3 beats) makes a dotted eight. This won't work if you start the song unless you save the tempo in a preset. The problem is when the drummer clicks off the song it takes your brain two clicks to get any sort of tempo so it will take a minimum of 6 beats to set your delay (tapping on beat 3 - the first beat you can predict - and 6). The way around this is to set your rhythm to eight-notes and tap out a dotted-quarter. Have I completely confused you yet?! If you think of a 4/4 measure as "1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +" you would tap on 1 and the "+" after 2. It takes some practice to get your brain to do that, but once you get it down it's really useful. Think "Clocks" by Coldplay, the drum beat is a dotted-quarter, dotted-quarter, quarter (1, + after 2, 4). Using a dotted quarter on other delays can be a nice effect too. Add it to your arsenal!

2) The Expression Pedal - This will very much open up your DL4. You can plug in an expression pedal and make two settings for each preset as long as they're the same mod (lo-res, rhythm, analog, etc). You can have two separate delay times, repeats, tweak, tweez, and mix - one saved as the "heel" position, the other saved as the "toe." If you move the expression pedal from heel to toe it will blend your two settings to all the in between sounds. Pretty crazy! I've had fun using all the same settings for toe and heel EXCEPT delay time. I set the heel to a few repeats (maybe 4) and the toe to the max repeats. Use this with the lo-res or analog and you can get some great oscillation (when the delay repeats over itself) and then slide back to the heel to make it go away.

You can also use the expression to double your number of presets (as long as you only need 3 different models). I often set different tempo for the heel and toe with no intention of ever using the in between sounds, I just keep them as two tempos so I don't have to tap since the drummer usually has a metronome and will start at the same tempo as rehearsal.

If an expression pedal will take up too much pedal board real estate, check this link out: http://www.scottcampbellmusic.com/Public/ExpressionSwitch/dl4order.html He doesn't do the mod for you anymore but he'll sell you in-depth instructions for $10. The mod also takes about $10 worth of parts. The idea behind this is that when the button is IN it will send the same signal as the toe of an expression pedal. When the switch is OUT it will send the heal signal. If you mostly go from just heel to toe like I do, a switch is a good idea and a good way to save room on your board. If you don't care if the button is right on your DL4 you can buy a switch like the Fender one-channel to do the same thing. The LED even lights up, just not as bright as the mod from Scott Campbell since his uses power from the DL4.

Hope that helps! If you know of any other tricks or secrets put them in the comments!

fitting into the band - part 4 - Moving as a band

2008-04-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

So far I've talked about making sure you're playing something that adds to the songs and making sure you're playing in your own space so the band sounds like one band. The final step to making music that's bigger than the individuals is to move as a band. What I mean by that is when the song starts building dynamically, everyone needs to build together, there can't be one person trying to force it or one person lagging behind.

If you've been playing with the same people on worship team for a while, consider yourself lucky! Cohesiveness will naturally come with time and you won't have to worry about it. I attend a Sunday night church which frees up my Sunday mornings to play around the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. It's fun getting to meet new musicians all the time, but playing with new people and having rehearsals that are little more than a quick run-through before the service means cohesion is something I have to be purposeful about.

There are some tricks to playing together that will be helpful if you're playing with new people a lot, and hopefully still be helpful to make an already cohesive band even tighter:

1) Memorize your music - I recommend that for a number of reasons but especially when you're trying to gel. I find when I'm reading a chord chart or really thinking about what I have to play I end up in my own little bubble. If I know what I'm playing I can get into it musically but also spend more time listening to the other musicians - which is key for moving together.

2) Close your eyes - Some producers will have bands practice in the dark to help them tighten up. When you lose a sense (like sight) your brain heightens your other senses and it makes it easier to listen. Turning off the lights in the sanctuary might be a little extreme but you can always close your eyes during parts of rehearsal to practice really listening. Drums are probably the most important thing we electric players will need to listen to. If you're playing something fast listen for the high-hat or ryde cymbal to get the eighth note rhythm. If the song is going to build form the drums, listen for it!

3) Make eye contact with the other musicians - Especially during rehearsal when you're putting the songs together (when you're eyes aren't closed from #2). It might feel uncomfortable if you're not used to it (or if the other person doesn't know why you're staring at them!!) but it will really help you lock in.

4) Watch the worship leader - Close your eyes or look at the other musicians through out the song but keep an eye on the worship leader, especially at a point where they could change something. It's the worship leaders job to feel the spirit and read the congregation, they need to be confident that they can add a chorus, go back to the bridge, etc and everyone will be with them. Sometimes they'll just call out what they're going to do, but often it's a non-verbal. Pay attention to what your particular worship leader's non-verbals are or if they don't seem to have any ask them what they are or ask them to make some up! When I led worship I had different ways of stomping or hand motions. Some leaders give "a look," whatever it is, make sure you're on the same page and watching.

There you have it, that's all I know :) I know there are others out there with more to add, so feel free to comment! The good news is figuring out when to play and what to play can be done from home. It's best to figure all that out before you get to rehearsal so you can concentrate on playing tightly or tweaking your part when you get there - not figuring the whole thing out at rehearsal. It might seem like a lot of information if you're not used to thinking about all this. Don't worry, after a while it will feel natural and you'll be able to adapt on the fly to make the band sound the best in can. The most important thing is that you keep making music and keep thinking about how you're fitting into each song.

Part 1 - making a song
Part 2 - knowing when and when not to play
Part 3 - knowing our role
Part 4 - Moving as a band

fitting into the band - part 3 - knowing our role

2008-04-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

I was talking with a friend about this next post and he brought up a great point - there will be lots of exceptions to what I'm about to say. I agree, so know that my advice here is really general and specifically aimed at worship songs that are acoustic lead.

If a worship team is going to play as one, we need to each know what spaces we can take and where we need to leave space for the others.

Knowing your role in a song is something you never really think about until someone else over-steps their bounds. I played with a worship leader who was a really good guitarist but every time there was a break in the vocals he would slide up the neck and play a little solo lick. What he played was fine on it's own, but it was in the same register as I was playing and it clashed. I had to stop playing each time he came into my space so instead of adding something, he was neglecting the chords and losing the electric. The most common bounds-over-stepper seems to be a bass player who used to be a guitar player. His job is to lay down the foundation but he gets bored of that and starts adding more and more. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of moving the bass line around and playing within the chord, but sometimes it gets to the point where the root note isn't being played any more and we end up with a bass solo that lasts the entire song.

It's important to make sure we're not getting out of line too. The most common ways electric guitar players over do it are:

1) Playing when they shouldn't (see part 2)
2) Noodling the entire time. As in, playing within the key but never repeating anything, just soloing with no real structure.
3) Trying to be the rhythm of the song
4) Playing a part that's too low and makes the acoustic/vocals sound muddy.

In my experience, electric guitar is used mostly for texture and counter melody in a worship song. In a full mix, the drums and bass will be taking care of the rhythm and chord changes, the acoustic will be adding rhythm (when everyone's playing you mostly hear is the attack of the strings, not the actual chords so the acoustic becomes a rhythm instrument), the keyboard fills in the chords. That leaves room for the electric to fill in the upper register. It's important that we leave room for the other instruments to do their thing. All the warmth we squeeze out of our tube amps and smooth pick-ups make our guitars sound great but takes away the ability to get the hard attack needed for rhythm. That doesn't mean we don't play in rhythm, it just means we won't drive the rhythm the way an acoustic or drum set can (again this is generalize for acoustic-lead songs).

It's also important to make sure we stay out of other people's frequencies. When a sound guy mixes (live or studio) they talk about a stereo image - the 3D image of where sounds appear to be placed in a room. Then can move a sound left and right by panning the sound so it's louder in one speaker than the other, move the sound forward and backward with volume (louder is closer) or reverb/delay (dry is closer), or move sounds up and down with frequency. Low frequencies sound like they're coming from the ground and high frequencies sound like they're higher in the room. Here's a visual of what a blues mix might look like:

If two sounds are taking up the same space in this 3D image they will sound muddy or blurred, frequencies will interfere with each other and make parts louder or softer, and it will generally sound bad. The sound guy can move sounds left, right, forward, or back, but it's our jobs as musicians place our sound vertically by playing higher or lower notes.

Playing between the 7th and 14th fret on the G through high E strings is home. Most songs won't require you to wander more than 2 frets away from home - if they do you should be cautious. Playing a fat over-driven G power chord on the 3rd fret might sound great on your guitar but it's going to step on anything going on with vocals or acoustic guitar.

It's impossible for a band to be greater than the sum of it's parts if any instruments are in the same space or fighting for a piece of the song. If each instrument plays in their own frequency and doesn't fight for rhythm, melody, or business you should create a pretty solid sound! From there you'll be freed up to be creative in your own space and not have to worry about being stepped on or stepping on someone else. The band will sound big, clear, and like one entity.

Part 1 - making a song
Part 2 - knowing when and when not to play
Part 3 - knowing our role
Part 4 - Moving as a band

fitting into the band - part 2 - knowing when and when not to play

2008-04-22T13:57:00.000-07:00

I play an instrument called a Euphonium. You may have heard it called a Baritone but if it's still not ringing a bell just imagine a Tuba that's half the size and sounds like a trombone. I played in band from 4th grade up til the middle of college and learned (sometimes beat over the head) a lot about music from the whole experience. One of the things I've been able to take from band to a worship team is knowing when and when not to play.

It's easier to know with band music, you follow along in the music and when there are rests you don't play, when there are notes you do play! Sometimes you get a "whole rest"which means you don't play the entire measure. Sometimes there's a number over that rest that tells you not to rest for just that measure but to rest for however many measures the number tells you. Sometimes the number is 4, some times it's 64, sometimes it's 384. No one wants to rest for 384 measures. It's like the coach telling you to "sit this half out." Does the composer hate the sound of my instrument? Does he think I can't play well enough? Did he forget I existed when he wrote it?

One day my band director sensed people were frustrated with the long periods of not playing. He decided to teach us that day that "silence is musical." Composers aim to get a certain timbre (meaning the over-all sound or tone, not so much loudness or pitch but harshness or softness) and certain timbres require instruments to not play. A band sounds different with trumpets playing than without. There's nothing a trumpet could play to get the timbre the band is trying to make so they play nothing, and by playing nothing they actually ADD to the sound of the band by changing the timbre.

If the whole band nerd stuff is too abstract, here's a pop-culture example from when Bo Bice sand "In a Dream" a capella at the American Idol Finals:

The emptiness, the way he controlled the phrases to the end, and how you can hear each note resonate through the theater made that song what it was. If any of the musicians had played it would have taken those elements away and made the song worse. By not playing they added to the song and made it powerful.

So am I telling to never play? No, definitely not. BUT, I think silence is very underrated in worship. I want to really hammer the point home that it's ok to play nothing and silence is musical. My mom used to say, "If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all." I take the same mentality to the worship team with my guitar. If I don't have anything to add I won't play anything at all.

Now we can step back and look at the song as "thing" out there and decide what kind of timbre will make the song come alive. For songs like "No one like you" by crowder you'll play the entire time (except maybe the drum-only chorus when you're silently making music!) but maybe on a slower song like "How Deep the Father's Love" by Stewart Townend no one will play but the acoustic and vocalist to really bring out the finger picking and vocal nuances. Some songs you'll play part of the time but not others. Whatever the ratio it's important to think about whether or not you should even play. Making silence will also make your guitar more powerful when you DO play and give you a larger dynamic range.

Silence is music!

Part 1 - making a song
Part 2 - knowing when and when not to play
Part 3 - knowing our role
Part 4 - Moving as a band

fitting into the band - part 1 - making a song

2008-04-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

I think it's easy to get wrapped up in effects, scales, and interesting chords and forget the most basic thing we, as electric guitar players, should be asking ourselves when we play: "What am I adding to this song?"

Call me new-agey but I like to think of a song as an intangible "thing" out there. It's an idea, an emotion, or a feeling, and our job as a band is to express that "thing" in a way people can get or feel. That might sound weird but it frees us up. Now we can think of a song as more than chords and melody, and more than just playing back the sounds we hear on a CD. Now we're making art and expression. Now we can try to find new ways to bring the song out.

The goal of any band is to be greater than the sum of it's parts. By that I mean if you take five people playing something musical and put them all together, the result would be something bigger than just adding up their individual music. It's like in Gladiator when they're fighting the chariots, Russell Crowe tells them to stay together and lock shields. The eight of them act as one and are stronger than they would be as eight individuals. In a band we need to become one musically and make something bigger than ourselves.

We can do this by knowing when to play and when not to play, knowing our instruments role in the song, not stepping on other instruments toes (frequency-wise), and moving as a band.

These idea is rarely talked about during rehearsal or in guitar lessons. It's something I learned from playing in concert bands (the kind with tubas and flutes) and from mixing and producing studio music. I'm sure a lot of people intuitively do a lot of the things I'll discuss but hopefully putting it into words will bring it new light. Check back for the next few posts and make lots of comments, I want to hear what you think!

Part 1 - making a song
Part 2 - knowing when and when not to play
Part 3 - knowing our role
Part 4 - Moving as a band

allow myself to introduce... myself

2008-04-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

Why is there so little information on playing lead electric in a worship setting? I miss the simplicity of being a worship leader - buy a Taylor 310ce (or a McPherson if you have the means), get yourself a cut capo, play the chords on the page and sing the melody just like the CD. I don't mean to over simplify... it's a hard job being a worship leader, but when it comes to playing electric there isn't a clear cut method. There are thousands of combinations of guitar/effects/amps, hardly any tabs telling you what to play, and very little direction. It's like the church gives you a little slap on the butt on your way to the stage and says, "Play something amazing" and that's about it.

That's why I'm starting this project. 1) Because I have a lot of information in my head that I'd love to share and hopefully help teach the things I learned the hard way, and 2) To hear what you have to say.

I'll write some ideas, you add yours in the comments, and hopefully we'll get a conversation going! I plan to write on the following topics: effects/tone, styles and techniques of playing, fitting into a band musically, faith in context of musical worship, and whatever else pops into my head. I hope you enjoy it and I hope we can learn from each other!

Gear

2008-03-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to some pics of my gear:

Gear